Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Canada's climate plan is developed to ensure reducing greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions by 2030 and reaching net-zero emissions by 2050. Canada's climate plan identified that transportation sector is responsible for about 25% of GHG emissions. One of the major recommendations is for the reduction in vehicle weight while enhancing structural performance of new cars, light trucks transport aircraft and marine craft. Composite materials represent the ideal candidate for meeting these challenges. This triggered further advances in composite manufacturing technologies as well as hybridization by combining natural and synthetic fibres. These advances dictate the need to account for manufacturing defects and their influence on mechanical response and failure. This research program plans three parallel investigations to capture these effects and extend functionality of existing simulation tools. These parallel investigations are 1) microstructural assessment to identify manufacturing defects, 2) micromechanical modeling to delineate the influence of these defects on mechanical response and 3) macromechanical modeling to examine the effects of manufacturing defects on failure limits. In microstructure assessment investigations, two manufacturing methods and their variations are utilized, namely, autoclave and vacuum assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM). Quantitative assessments of microstructure also account for variations between using unidirectional and two-dimensional woven fibres. Micromechanical modeling investigations study effect of individual and combined manufacturing defects identified in assessment investigations on mechanical response. Homogenized properties are sought to enable prediction of mechanical response under service loads. Finally, macromechanical modeling investigations extend studies on effect of manufacturing defects towards failure prediction. Competitive failure models accounting for manufacturing defects are sought utilizing macro-micro mechanical relationships. Through micro- and macro-mechanical investigations, the research program aims at developing graphical user interface (GUI) into mainstream finite element commercial codes. This GUI allows the designer to translate manufacturing method into set of objective inputs to eliminate need for time consuming multi-level simulations. Given that composite materials are adopted in all engineering fields, the impact of proposed program is universal. World-wide use of composites highlights expected potential of internationally spreading the outcomes of the proposed program. Implementation of research outcomes into commercial codes guarantees their practical dissemination among researchers and various industries. Moreover, the proposed program guarantees HQP training on state-of-the-art non-destructive evaluation and advanced simulation techniques. These outcomes combined will have favorable impacts on Canadian industry, economy development and environmental sustainability.