PROPERTY-BASED OPTIMAL-DESIGN OF COMPOSITE-MATERIALS AND THEIR INTERNAL ARCHITECTURES

Composite materials are increasingly finding use in diverse applicatio ns with a wide range of property and performance requirements. The abi lity to optimally tailor composite materials for these applications is of much practical importance, and forms the focus of this investigati on. Composite materials tailoring refers to the concurrent manipulatio n of the materials composition and internal architecture of a composit e material to achieve the desired properties. Since the wide variety o f material combinations, reinforcement geometries and architectures to choose from poses a bewildering task of selection, a systematic appro ach to optimal tailoring of composite materials is a challenging desig n problem which is addressed in this article. This study presents a ge neralized optimal tailoring framework using the combinatorial optimiza tion technique of simulated annealing in conjunction with a property m odel base consisting of analytical relationships between the composite properties and the microstructures. Optimal tailoring, charts are dev eloped, which provide for selecting optimal combinations of matrix and reinforcement materials, and reinforcement morphology, architecture, and volume fraction so as to meet the specified property and performan ce requirements. The study considers matrix materials that span the cl asses of polymers, metals and ceramics, while reinforcement geometries of unidirectional fibers, particulates and two-dimensional woven fabr ics are considered.