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A methodology to predict damage initiation, damage growth and residual strength in titanium matrix composites

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:6769258

In this research, a methodology to predict damage initiation, damage growth, fatigue life, and residual strength in titanium matrix composites (TMC) is outlined. Emphasis was placed on micromechanics-based engineering approaches. Damage initiation was predicted using a local effective strain approach. A finite element analysis verified the prevailing assumptions made in the formulation of this model. Damage growth, namely, fiber-bridged matrix crack growth, was evaluated using a fiber bridging (FB) model which accounts for thermal residual stresses. This model combines continuum fracture mechanics and micromechanics analyses yielding stress-intensity factor solutions for fiber-bridged matrix cracks. It is assumed in the FB model that fibers in the wake of the matrix crack are idealized as a closure pressure, and an unknown constant frictional shear stress is assumed to act along the debond length of the bridging fibers. This frictional shear stress was used as a curve fitting parameter to the available experimental data. Fatigue life and post-fatigue residual strength were predicted based on the axial stress in the first intact 0 degree fiber calculated using the FB model and a three-dimensional finite element analysis.

Research Organization:
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Hampton, VA (United States). Langley Research Center
OSTI ID:
6769258
Report Number(s):
N-94-37320; NASA-TM--109135; NAS--1.15:109135; CNN: RTOP 505-63-50-04
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English