Deepak Sadagopan

Research Project

Optimal Tailoring of Composite Materials

Composite materials are increasingly finding use in diverse applications with a wide range of property and performance requirements. The ability to tailor materials and architectures optimally and efficiently is of great practical significance in the engineering design of composites, and forms the focus of this investigation. Composite materials tailoring refers to the concurrent manipulation of the materials composition and the internal architecture to achieve the desired properties. Since the wide variety of material combinations, reinforcement morphologies and architectures to choose from poses a bewildering task of selection, a need exists for a systematic approach to optimal tailoring of composite materials. Towards addressing this challenging problem, the study presents a generalized optimal tailoring framework using the combinatorial optimization techniques of simulated annealing and genetic algorithms, in conjunction with a property model base consisting of property-microstructure relationships. The study considers matrix materials that span the classes of polymers, metals and ceramics, and reinforcements of the unidirectional fibrous, particulate and fabric morphologies.

Publications

1. D. Sadagopan and R. Pitchumani, "Property-based Optimal Tailoring of Composite Materials," in Physical Properties of Composites, P. K. Liaw and R. Pitchumani, eds., pp. 1-10, 1996.
2. D. Sadagopan and R. Pitchumani, "A Combinatorial Optimization Approach to Composite Materials Tailoring," ASME Journal of Mechanical Design, 119(4), 494-503, 1997.
3. D. Sadagopan and R. Pitchumani, "Application of Genetic Algorithms to Optimal Tailoring of Composite Materials Tailoring," Composites Science and Technology, 58(3-4), 571-589, 1998.
4. D. Sadagopan and R. Pitchumani, "Property-based Optimal Design of Composite Materials and their Internal Architectures," Journal of Composite Materials, 32(19), 1714-1739, 1998.

Sponsor