The adoption of fossil-based hydrocarbon polymer composites has been successful in both the automotive and aircraft industries. However, few extensions have&nbsp;been achieved in the civil infrastructure and building construction industry. This gap is partly due to (i) the lack of multiphysics and multiscale models unifying degradation? deformation damage phenomena to assess the safety and durability of newly adopted or proposed material and structural systems, and (ii) no available computational models that are succinctly fundamental and directly interactable with other digital files from an architecture designer or manufacturer. To begin addressing this gap, this study presents a multi-physics and multiphysics model that uses the UV and moisture deterioration variables homogenized from a micromechanical model.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. 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. Results of this study indicate that the synergistic effect of combined UV and moisture exposure on composite material degradation is more severe than 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 affects 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.At the structural level, the damage fatigue model affected by environmental degradation is validated by&nbsp;exposure-fatigue-damage experiments.&nbsp;The macro-level model links the application of analysis to the architecture or manufacturing digital model by enabling more accurate predictions of mechanical performance. An example of the model is presented for analysis of a group of glass fiber&nbsp;reinforced polymer (GFRP) composite plates in SFMOMA Façade System, the first and largest architectural application of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) in the United States. The benefits of utilizing GFRP in buildings and civil infrastructures include higher material usage efficiency, more economical construction, and life-cycle costs. This model also offers the potential for structural engineers and architects to create novel solutions in sustainable design and construction.

Characterization and Modeling of How Environmental Aging Affects Fatigue Damage Evolution in Fiber Reinforced Polymeric Composites

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/IMECE/IMECE2021/volume/85543

ASME 2021 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE2021)

Supporting the need among researchers worldwide for additional online and multimedia content, ASME now offers the ASME Conference Video Collection. This platform will collect and provide long-term access to conference presentation videos, encompassing all technology areas within ASME's technical conference and events program. About 30,000-40,000 engineers across all mechanical engineering and related disciplines participate in ASME conferences each year. This includes authors of approximately 6,000 to 8,000 technical papers published by ASME, the majority of whom also submit video presentations for our virtual conferences. The video collection will be available as an add-on to existing product packages or as a separate subscription.