Collaborative Research: Enhancing the Understanding of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thermostamping Woven Composites to Develop a Comprehensive Design Tool

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This objective of this collaborative research project will be to design test apparatus to examine yarn slippage during thermostamping, to formulate material constitutive and interface models to capture macroscale behavior while considering the microscopic constituents; to propose failure criteria linking to the formability of this material (woven architecture and matrix constituents). The overall objective is to create design rules to best utilize the material potential. These challenging and fundamental issues will be addressed in collaboration between Northwestern, U Mass-Lowell, industry, and international researchers. The broader impacts of this research are numerous. The environmental concern for reduced emissions and fuel consumption has created enormous opportunities for introducing woven-fabric reinforced composites into high-volume consumer products as they possess outstanding structural (car bodies, floor pans, truck beds) and energy-management (for crash situations) properties. Thermostamping has demonstrated its potential as the means to reduce manufacturing costs for mass-production applications. The PI will coordinate an international benchmarking program on material tests, thermostamping tests and modeling methods among researchers in the U.S., Europe and Asia.