A 3D ABAQUS Toolkit for Thermal-Mechanical Damage Prediction of Composite Sandwich Structures Subjected to Fire

A thermo-mechanical structural response prediction and fire simulation is developed by enhancing, packaging, and integrating our existing solution modules as an add-on toolkit for commercial finite element solvers such as ABAQUS. Current state-of-the-art analysis and damage assessment tool have ignored the 3D nature of a fire environment and inherent coupling at material and structural level. The ultimate strength of composite sandwich structures subjected to fire is strongly dependent on the time history of the temperature distribution, the resulting thermal degradation, and the progressive failure at the ply level. To capture the synergistic interaction between the thermal decomposition, gas pressure, and mechanical response, a two overlay element approach is used in conjunction with a 3D constituent based thermal decomposition model for composite materials. Validation studies are performed to examine the applicability and accuracy of the thermal decomposition model for both solid laminate and its sandwich structures. Both a one-way and two-way coupling between a Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) and the developed ABAQUS toolkit is developed to examine the fire response and delamination failure of a loaded composite panel subjected to a fire environment.