Structure-Property correlations in multi-scale composites

Faculty Development Competitive Research Grant Program 2018-2020

The ultimate goal of applied research in composite materials is to provide a theoretically sound and quantifiable framework linking the process of shaping or processing the material with the properties and on-site performance of the final product.
In a Computer-Aided Design and Virtual Prototyping environment, it is desirable to make full use of the above sequence, both forward and backward, with as little reference as possible to empirical knowledge or trial and error experimentation, relying instead on rules derived from first-principles analysis. Although there is a wealth of knowledge in the industry relating processing of heterogeneous systems to their microstructure, the state-of-the-art in understanding the relationship between microstructure and properties falls significantly behind, and this hinders the achievement of the goal outlined in the diagram above. This state of affairs limits the "inverse design" option, according to which the processing conditions are determined by the required properties of the final product.
The main obstacles in applying the above methodology have been:
(i)the inability to generate, and experiment with, heterogeneous objects/specimens having a precisely defined microstructure and
(ii)the difficulty in simulating the behavior of heterogeneous systems whose microstructure approaches the complexity of the microstructures encountered in real-life materials.
The Purpose of the proposed research is to develop quantitative relationships (meta-models) relating microstructure to properties and/or on-site performance. To achieve this we will take advantage of the advances in computing and prototyping.