Our composite-focused article entitled “Holistic estimation and sensitivity-based experiment design method of composite laminate first-ply failure models using statistical approaches” has been published in the international journal Engineering Failure Analysis. In this scientific paper, we present a probabilistic approach for fitting failure model parameters of composite materials.
Two of the three authors of the technical paper are Econ Engineering’s experts; László Kovács is a composite expert, senior simulation engineer, and R&D project manager, and Márton Bugár-Mészáros is a simulation engineer at Econ. Our colleagues’ co-author is Dr. Gábor Romhány, Associate Professor at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Department of Polymer Engineering. The scientific study was published on 30 November 2023 (Impact Factor = 4.0) in the Engineering Failure Analysis journal as an open-source article and is now also available in the latest print edition. Engineering Failure Analysis Journal provides an essential reference for analyzing and preventing engineering failures, emphasizing the investigation of the failure mechanisms, identifying the failure’s root causes, and proposing preventive actions to avoid failures.
In the study, the authors present a probabilistic method to fit a preselected ply-specific multiaxial failure model to all available experimental failure results in one go. The method implements a Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) based approach in combination with a controlled sampling (Latin Hypercube) technique. It returns probability distribution functions for the strength parameters, thus, enabling the use of survival probability-dependent strength data in composite Finite Element simulations. The article also deals with the information content of mechanical experiments and suggests an analytical Design of Experiment technique to find the most informative mechanical experiments to be done on unidirectional specimens for failure model parameter fit. The entire methodology was demonstrated in a large number of experiments conducted on carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic matrix coupons.
Click here to read the study. (In English)
