Reliability approach for fibre-reinforced composites design

Abstract

This study aims at investigating the mechanical reliability of unidirectional fibre-reinforced composites in view of their design optimization. Owing to the manufacturing process, many uncertainties affect inherently the properties of these materials. Besides, the brittle character of the fibre failure leads to important safety factors that limit their development for engineering applications. The objective is to get a realistic evaluation of the mechanical reliability of such structures which accounts for the various uncertainties involved. The effects of random design parameters on the composite failure are then investigated for different kinds of reinforcement (nature of fibre, mono-material or hybrid structures) with finite-element probabilistic solver PERMAS.