Abstract
Fibre reinforced composite materials are being widely used in many industries for their improved stiffness-weight ratio compared with other materials. However, the full benefits are often not realised in practice as conservative design factors are often used to account for the current limited understanding of how complex multi-scale uncertainties effect structural reliability. An alternative approach is structural reliability analysis, which requires an understanding of how multi-scale uncertainties effect the probability of failure. To implement this design approach, the stiffness characterisation of the composite material should be estimated using a probabilistic perspective, considering various micro-scale uncertainties such as: - fibre material uncertainty: tolerance in fibre modulus - matrix material uncertainty: tolerance in matrix modulus, and - fibre stacking randomness. Due to analytical limitations, current studies are mainly focusing on material property uncertainties, although fibre stacking randomness exists in every composite material. For that reason, this study aims to develop a method that evaluates composite material stiffness in the presence of fibre stacking and material property uncertainties within a single probabilistic framework and to investigate their effect on the reliability of composite structures.
| Original language | English |
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| Title of host publication | Proceedings of the 20th Young Researchers' Conference |
| Subtitle of host publication | The Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) |
| Place of Publication | London |
| Publisher | The Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) |
| Pages | 82-83 |
| Number of pages | 1 |
| Edition | 20 |
| Publication status | Published - 10 Apr 2018 |