Toolbox for visco-elastic material modeling of smart lightweight structures

Abstract

More and more functionalities will soon be integrated into lightweight structures made of fiber reinforced polymers (FRP). This combines very different materials in minimum space. Consequently, thermo-mechanical risks are of vital concern. The complex stress situation requires a systematic and scalable toolbox of methodologies capable of keeping pace with the growing number and diversity in possible failure risks and sites. The paper reports the status of ongoing work on three expansions to an accelerated test methodology that allows determining the lifetime of FRP structures based on three types of tests: visco-elastic dynamic mechanical analysis, constant strain rate and fatigue tests. The expansions attempt to cover in addition i) various levels of moisture content within the polymer, ii) several laminate stack configurations, and iii) different loading situations including the mix of tension, bending, and shear.