High-resolution numerical models for damage assessment in composite materials

The reported work was undertaken within Work Package 3 (WP3) - “Numerical modelling of impact and crush behaviour of composite structures”, where the focus was on the high-fidelity modelling of energy absorbing mechanisms of carbon fibre-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite structures, under a variety of quasi-static and dynamic loading conditions.

This contribution presents several numerical strategies to evaluate the mechanical performance of these materials at their different length scales. The developed tools enable a proper and detailed evaluation of the damage mechanisms which arise in both unidirectional and two-dimensional woven textile composites.<br><br>It is well established that a methodology which can be considered reliable in predicting the structural response of heterogeneous materials depends on the scale at which damage is explicitly modelled, making low-scale models ideal subjects to assess the behaviour of composites.