Thermo-Viscoplastic Modeling of CompositesExposed to Fire or High Temperature

摘要

This paper presents a study on composites exposed to elevated temperaturesrnassociated with a fire. A thermo-viscoplastic model is proposed and examined forrndescription of the rate-dependent/temperature-dependent behavior of composites atrnelevated temperatures. To determine thermo-viscoplastic parameters of thernproposed model, off-axis angle tests on E-glass/vinylester woven composites werernperformed with various strain rates at various temperatures. To achieve anrnisothermal condition (uniform temperature near the specimen), the lower loadingrnfixture was locally heated with an additional heating device. Thermo-viscoplasticrnparameters of E-glass/vinylester woven composite material were determined fromrnexperimental data. Comparison of the results from the proposed model withrnexperimental data shows good agreement. Also, a few interesting points observedrnduring this study such as the material behavior near the glass transition temperature,rnthe failure mechanism and the effect of charring are discussed.