Seminar Series - 1999-2000

Modeling of Fabric-Reinforced Woven Composites

Dr. Xin-Lin Gao
Post-doctoral Research Associate
Dept. of Aeronautics & Astronautics
Air Force Institute of Technology
Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio

Sponsored by the Dept. of Engineering Mechanics

Date:  Tuesday, February 29, 2000
Time:  3:30 p.m.
Place:  W128 Nebraska Hall


Woven (textile) composites are finding more and more structural applications in aerospace, automobile and defense industries because of their unique architectural features, ease of handling and excellent mechanical properties (including damage tolerance and impact resistance).  Since many weave patterns and constituent distributions are possible, woven composites offer a great potential for tailored (optimal) designs and increased applications.  On the other hand, the unusual macro-level versatility and micro-scale variability of such composites make their modeling very challenging.  The first part of this seminar will present an overview of various methods available for modeling woven composites. A new two-dimensional rule-of-mixtures micromechanics model and a recently developed variational model based on the principle of minimum complementary energy will be discussed in a more specific manner in the second part of this talk.


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