Transient Thermo-mechanical Modeling of Insulated Composite Sandwich Panels under Combined Fire and shock Loadings

One of the most critical situations that may happen to composite structures is fire exposure. During the fire mechanical properties of composite materials would change dramatically. This reduction may lead to global or local failure of the structure. Predicting the fire integrity of the composite structures is one of the major scopes for the designers. In this paper an innovative method is introduced to predict the failure time for composite structure under fire exposure. An FEM model is developed using ANSYS Workbench. Appropriate mechanical and thermal properties are chosen precisely to follow conditions of the real state. The properties of composite structures are defined as non-linear or linear functions of temperature. Consequent explosion shock, hydrostatic loading and fire exposure are simulated on the structure. Finally, the total time that the structure could withstand the fire is reported.

Keywords:

Composite , Sandwich Panel , Fire , shock loading , Structural Integrity