Numerical simulation of damage progression and fracture in structures made of 3D woven ceramic matrix composites

This paper proposes numerical simulation to predict damage progression and critical strength in structural components made of 3D woven ceramic matrix composites (CMCs). This method implements three numerical approaches with the commercial finite element method. (i) Damage models are used to predict damage initiation and propagation of CMCs. (ii) The failure criterion based on the Weibull volumetric statistical strength model is implemented to take into account the size effects of fiber-bundle strength. (iii) The nonlocal damage theory is implemented to confirm the mesh independence of the results and the convergence of computation. To verify the accuracy of the two damage models, simulations of smooth SiC/SiC specimens were performed. Furthermore, several kinds of open-hole SiC/SiC tensile test were simulated to verify the accuracy of the proposed numerical simulation. Finally, the proposed numerical simulation was validated by detailed comparisons of experiment and simulation.