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Metal/CFRP hybrid structures have been increasingly applied in the automotive industry due to their favorable weight-saving and crashworthiness. In this article, a nonlinear finite element (FE) model is established to study the axial crushing behavior of aluminum/CFRP thin-walled tube structures. A progressive damage constitutive model is employed to capture the intra-laminar response of composites; Johnson-Cook model is used to describe the crushing process of aluminum layers and a bilinear cohesive zone model is applied for modeling the inter-layer delamination during the collapse process. A user material subroutine VUMAT involving these damage models is coded and executed to attain the numerical solution based on ABAQUS/Explicit solver. The axial crushing processes of thin-walled tubes with different configurations are simulated, and the corresponding damage characteristics are analyzed thoroughly. The influence of aluminum layer arrangement and cross-sectional shape on the crashworthiness and energy absorption of thin-walled tubes is discussed, which provides a design basis for the application of energy absorption elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

3D braided composites consolidated by heat-resistant resin are expected to become essential structural material of new generation aerospace vehicles. In this work, the thermo-mechanical behavior of 3D braided composites subjected to general off-axis tensile loadings at room and elevated temperatures is evaluated based on the meso-scale finite element (FE) model. A user-material subroutine UMAT is adopted to implement the thermal stress analysis, temperature-dependent failure initiation criteria and material properties degradation scheme of both fiber yarns and matrix. The meso-scale damage evolutions under thermal-mechanical coupling loads are simulated based on ABAQUS/Standard and the corresponding detailed failure mechanisms are revealed. The off-axial elastic moduli and strengths of 3D braided composites under elevated temperatures are also predicted. The numerical results indicate that high temperature affects the material properties mainly by weakening the matrix properties while off-axis loading affects the damage mechanisms by changing the load distribution of fiber yarn in each direction. The present work provides routine support for the numerical study of structural properties and damage behavior of other textile composites in service temperature environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel refined arctangent exponential shear deformation theory (RAESDT) is presented for analysis the mechanical behavior of both isotropic and sandwich FGM plates. Material properties are set to be isotropic at each point and varied across the thickness direction obeying to a power-law distribution of the volume fraction gradation with respect to FGM core or skins of the plate. Unlike high-order shear deformation plate theories based on five or more variables, the displacement field of the novel RAESDT using arctangent exponential variations in planed displacements were approximated by only four unknowns, satisfying naturally tangential stress-free conditions at the plate surfaces and leading to reduce computational efforts. In accordance with RAESDT and enhanced moving kriging interpolation (EMKI)-based meshfree method with a new quadrature correlation function is introduced for the numerical modeling. Numerical validations with different plate configurations, geometries, length to thickness ratios and boundaries conditions are conducted. The obtained results are compared with the corresponding solutions available in the literature showing the accuracy and efficiency of the present approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Fiber metal laminates (FMLs) are widely applied as protective structures in various high-tech industries owing to their excellent impact resistance. This paper presents an explicit finite element (FE) simulation to investigate the dynamic damage behavior of carbon fiber-reinforced aluminum laminates (CRALLs) under combined explosion and fragment loading. Johnson-Cook model is utilized to capture the damage response of aluminum material; 3D Hashin failure criteria are applied to predict the damage evolution of fiber composite material considering the high strain rate effect; cohesive elements are incorporated to simulate the inter-laminar delamination phenomena. The effectiveness of the proposed numerical model is verified through a comparison with available experimental data in ballistic impact conditions. In addition, a thorough analysis of the dynamic behavior and damage mechanism of FMLs is conducted, and the impact performance is extensively discussed in terms of the influences of explosion distance and explosion mass. This work serves as a valuable reference for future numerical studies on the explosive impact resistance of other FMLs structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]