Glass Fiber-reinforced polymer composites (GFRPs) are made by combining polymer with reinforcement glass fiber yarns to produce new materials that offer lightweight yet strong, durable, corrosion resistance. Its application is emerging in aerospace, the automotive and solar panel industries. Although decades of application have proved composite as a viable, permanent structural material, a reliable, experimentally validated model for the predictive performance for the composite under the expected environment is needed before this material can be used as a massive construction material. This study is to build a physics-based model to predict mechanical, thermal, weather and aging performance of the composite in the short- and long-term.

 

A multiscale modeling technique is used to upscale the usage of material model prediction into structural and system levels. In the multiscale computational model, there are two levels: materials level, structure level. The material level model has the smallest length scale. It consists of woven microstructure, periodic boundary conditions, and coupled multi-physical processes (radiation heat transfer, moisture condensation, polymer deterioration, and solid material behavior), which ultimately affect the mechanical performance of the material. These mechanisms will be computationally modeled using COMSOL® multi-physics modeling software. Specifically, a computational model of the SFMOMA façade panels will be constructed, including all of the deterioration mechanisms applied simultaneously. The material model will be used to generate an equivalent homogenized model that can be used at the structural level efficiently while maintaining the same accuracy.

 

The model is validated by UV/ moisture exposure and mechanical experiments. The results of this study indicate that the synergistic effect of combined UV and moisture exposure on composite material degradation is more severe than the simple linear superposition of each exposure’s damage.

A comparison and analysis of UV and moisture exposure degradation mechanisms indicate that these environmental exposures caused material degradation by weakening the polymer matrix, along with weakening the interface between the polymer matrix and fiber reinforcing yarns. The weakening of the polymer matrix causes surface discoloration and chalking, and effects local matrix material properties. The weakening of the fiber-matrix interface, which is more critical, weakens the bond between fiber-ply and matrix, reduces the energy absorption capacity of the composite, and contributes to global damage and failure of the composite element. In the long term, the models developed in this study will be combined with life cycle assessment (LCA) tools to better support sustainability-focused design of new material, thus reducing costs and environmental impacts of the built environment.


Development of a Model of Synergistic Effects Between Deterioration Mechanisms and Damage in Woven Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymeric Composite Structure

Division / Sponsors: 
Aerospace, Bioengineering, Applied Mechanics, Design Engineering Division, Advanced Energy Systems, Manufacturing Engineering Division, Noise Control and Acoustics, Nondestructive Evaluation, Diagnosis, and Prognosis (NDPD), Nuclear Engineering Division, Process Industries Division, Fluids Engineering, Heat Transfer, Materials, Microelectromechanical Systems, Safety Engineering and Risk Analysis, Computers & Information in Engineering


Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/IMECE/IMECE2020/volume/84478

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