Meso-scale Modeling of Carbon Fiber Composites for Crash Simulation

Typical compression molded laminated carbon fiber composites are made of stacked UD, woven and/or braided carbon fiber pre-pregs oriented differently through the thickness. Resulting micro-structure (layering, anisotropy, inhomogeneity, etc.) is quite complex and greatly affects their mechanical responses. In particular, crash characteristics of CF composites are quite complex and are dominated by both intra-laminar and inter-laminar failure modes such as matrix failure, fiber breakage, fiber buckling, delamination, etc. Despite a large number of constitutive models available in commercial codes, crash simulation of composites is still extremely challenging. This is primarily due to the inadequacy of current macro-scale modeling in characterizing complex micro-structural failure modes during crash.