This project is part of a MURI project entitled Fundamental Understanding of Propellant/Nozzle Interaction for Rocket Nozzle Erosion Minimization under very High Pressure Conditions.
The fundamental objective of the proposed modeling effort is to advance the state of the art in the modeling of damage and fracture in carbon/carbon (C/C) composites under high temperature and high pressure applications. In particular, this project intends to expand the understanding of the role of dynamic thermo-mechanical loading in controlling the dynamic failure behavior of advanced C/C composites. These objectives will be achieved by using a variety of tools. These tools will include current analytical finite element (FEM) techniques for the solution of coupled thermo-mechanical problems as well as improved FEM techniques. In addition, continuum-based modeling of the fracture properties of C/C composites will be explored in conjunction with the formulation and development of a new numerical approach for the solution of dynamic fracture problems in the presence of combined thermo-mechanical loading.
I working on this project with Jonathan Pitt who is a Ph.D. candidate in the department of Engineering Science and Mechanics.
So far we have only some preliminary resuls concerning the development of models for the thermo-elasto-dynamic reponse of damaged materials.
Here is a movie displaying the deformation and damage evolution in a plate with a hole. The damage variable is a scalar quantity that can take values in thee interval [0,1] and its evolution is being represented by the change in color.
Here is the response of a slender bar which is being pulled at one end while being fixed at the opposite end. The damage variable is a scalar quantity that can take values in thee interval [0,1] and its evolution is being represented by the change in color.