Mechanical behavior of composite materials for marine applications - an experimental and computational approach

The maturity of sophisticated numerical tools for predicting damage in composite materials has become a priority research area in aero- and underwater structures. This paper proposes a modeling approach to endeavor achieving high fidelity of mechanical behavior of composite materials subjected to high pressure applications. The strategy begins with numerical methods to design an alternative material for high pressure applications and to build a ladder with experimental observations when these composites are deployed for 600 bar pressure which take into account the relevant deformation, effective estimation of mechanical properties and failure mechanisms at different length scales. Coupon-shaped specimens with different hardener-epoxy ratios were manufactured to investigate the uniaxial tensile performance and the morphological studies were carried out in order to have a picture regarding the delamination and debonding behavior of the aforementioned composites. The further scope of this work involves a review of some notable micromechanic models and to establish the state-of-art together with insights for future development. Analytical models based on the mechanics of materials (MOM) approach and Mori-Tanaka (M-T) methods are shown to estimate the elastic response of composite materials. An attempt has been made to validate these finite-element predictions with experimental observations in order to secure the capability of a numerical framework. The outcome of our study also assures that these composites can be used in advanced structural applications under different conditions.