Research Projects

The research aims to investigate and analyze the fracture behavior of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites under hygrothermal conditions to protect aerospace structures from failure. The study will involve experimental and numerical studies on non-aged and aged samples. The experiments will focus on obtaining mechanical properties, such as tensile and mode-I fracture toughness, and the diffusion coefficient and degraded mechanical properties. The mechanical properties will be used to develop an extended isogeometric analysis (XIGA) based numerical model to predict the failure of CFRP composite. XIGA is a popular fracture simulation technique that uses a non-uniform rational B-spline (NURBS) basis function for discretizing geometry and approximating the solution. A coupled multi-physics model will be developed based on the XIGA framework, considering displacements, temperature, and moisture concentration as primary variables. A new domain-based interaction integral will be developed and integrated with the XIGA framework to evaluate hygrothermal fracture parameters. The validated XIGA model will be used for parametric studies by varying temperature and moisture concentrations under in-service conditions. This research aims to provide a better understanding of the failure mechanisms in CFRP composites and their potential applications in aerospace structures.