A Homogenization Approach for Design and Simulation of Blast Resistant Composites

Structural composites have been used in aerospace and structural engineering due to their high strength to weight ratio. Composite laminates have been successfully and extensively used in blast mitigation. This dissertation examines the use of the homogenization approach to design and simulate blast resistant composites. Three case studies are performed to examine the usefulness of different methods that may be used in designing and optimizing composite plates for blast resistance. The first case study utilizes a single degree of freedom system to simulate the blast and a reliability based approach. The first case study examines homogeneous plates and the optimal stacking sequence and plate thicknesses are determined. The second and third case studies use the homogenization method to calculate the properties of composite unit cell made of two different materials. The methods are integrated with dynamic simulation environments and advanced optimization algorithms. The second case study is 2-D and uses an implicit blast simulation, while the third case study is 3-D and simulates blast using the explicit blast method. Both case studies 2 and 3 rely on multi-objective genetic algorithms for the optimization process. Pareto optimal solutions are determined in case studies 2 and 3. Case study 3 is an integrative method for determining optimal stacking sequence, microstructure and plate thicknesses. The validity of the different methods such as homogenization, reliability, explicit blast modeling and multi-objective genetic algorithms are discussed. Possible extension of the methods to include strain rate effects and parallel computation is also examined.

Name thesis:degree_name

Mechanical Engineering

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Mechanical Engineering

Year

2014

Author dc:creator

• Sheyka, Michael

Contributors dc:contributor

• Taha, Mahmoud Reda
• Maji, Arup K.
• Shen, Yu-Lin
• Al-Haik, Marwan

• homogenization
• explicit
• implicit

Language dc:language

English

Identifier

https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/me_etds/21

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalrepository.unm.edu:me_etds-1020