Volume 19.3

As the use of structured composite materials continues to increase, particularly in the aerospace and automotive industries, DatapointLabs has developed enhanced test methods to capture shear properties and calibrate anisotropic material models to better represent the behavior of these complex materials.

Further, we are now applying digital image correlation (DIC) techniques in combination with these more conventional methods to measure directional properties of structured composites in order to populate linear orthotropic material models for use in Abaqus, ANSYS, NASTRAN and other structural analysis codes. True stress-strain measurements (ASTM D638/E8) can be performed using 3D DIC techniques, and the resulting data can be post-processed to obtain true stress-strain behavior, including localized yielding and subsequent failure. This is described in more detail in a recently presented paper at the NAFEMS World Congress 2013 in Salzburg, Austria.

Our Test Catalog has a range of tests that can be applied to composite materials, including Iosipescu (ASTM D5379), Arcan, and other shear methods; four-point bending (ASTM D6272); bearing strength (ASTM D5961); and open-hole tensile (ASTM D5766) and compressive (ASTM D6484) measurements.

In addition, we have added two new Testpaks to make it easy to to request the composite material properties required for specific Abaqus and LS-DYNA material models.

The most recent update to Matereality software has expanded material information storage capabilities on its extensible framework to store the composition and makeup of the material for which properties have been tested. For structured composite materials, this means that layup details, including orientation and thickness, as well as individual layer mechanical properties, now can be stored and managed in your Matereality database.

Compositional details of this kind can be captured even for non-conventional composites, such as metal-polymer composites and headliner materials.

See the Matereality Service Bulletin for details.

• "A Strategy for Material Testing and Data Management for the Automotive Industry." Hubert Lobo; DatapointLabs and Matereality. Carhs Automotive CAE Grand Challenge. April 10-12, 2013 - Hanau, Germany.
• "Validating Simulation Using Digital Image Correlation." Brian Croop; DatapointLabs. SIMULIA Community Conference. May 21-24, 2013 - Vienna, Austria.
• "Applying Digital Image Correlation Methods to SAMP-1 Characterization." Hubert Lobo, Brian Croop and Dan Roy; DatapointLabs. 9th European LS-DYNA Users' Conference. June 2-4, 2013 - Manchester, United Kingdom.
• "Use of Digital Image Correlation to Obtain Material Model Parameters for Composites." Brian Croop and Hubert Lobo; DatapointLabs. NAFEMS World Congress. June 9-12, 2013 - Salzburg, Austria.

Find links to these and previous technical papers and presentations for reference on our Research Papers page.