The research and development described herein aims to support the general objective of the advanced composites program (ACP), which intends to reduce the time and cost for certifying a structural…

This federal contract award, NNX15AJ92A, was granted to the University of Utah's Office of Sponsored Projects Division by the Shared Services Center, a civilian federal agency. The $214,830.85 Cooperative Agreement is to support the Advanced Composites Program's objective of reducing the time and cost for certifying structural airframe components made of fiber-reinforced polymer matrix composite materials. The research will leverage advanced imaging techniques and high-fidelity finite element simulations to characterize the distribution of fibers and flaws, and quantify the damage mechanisms that impact the transverse tensile strength of these composite materials. The experimental data and high-fidelity models will validate assumptions and predictions of current micromechanics and ply-level modeling methods. This contract is not a set-aside award and the prime contractor is the University of Utah, which conducts a wide range of federally-funded research across numerous scientific and medical disciplines.

The research and development described herein aims to support the general objective of the advanced composites program (ACP), which intends to reduce the time and cost for certifying a structural airframe component comprised of a fiber-reinforced polymer matrix composite material. The objective of this project are to characterize distribution of fibers and flaws, and quantify the damage mechanisms affected by this distribution that yield the scatter observed in the bulk transverse tensile strength measurements. To this end, this study will leverage state-of-the art 2D and 3D imaging techniques (i.e. in-situ SEM and x-RAY computed tomography), and highfidelity, finite element simulations. This integrated experimental and computational approach will provide a means of quantifying the inherent variability of transverse failure of frps by accounting for the underlying microstructure. Furthermore, the experimental data and high-fidelity models of as-measured frps will provide a means for validating assumptions and predictions of current state of-the-art micromechanics and PLY-level modeling methods.