MANUFACTURING, MODELING, AND CHARACTERIZING THERMOPLASTIC COMPOSITES FOR MILITARY VEHICLE APPLICATIONS

This paper focuses on development of methods for manufacturing structural thermoplastic composite materials, characterizing the mechanical properties of such composites, and modeling the static and dynamic performance in relevant military vehicle modeling and simulation environments. A thermoplastic polyethylene terephthalate (PET) / fiberglass composite was selected for this study due to the high specific strength of e-glass fibers, the high toughness of the PET thermoplastic, and relatively low price point, all which make it an attractive candidate for structural lightweighting of vehicles. The raw materials were manufactured into composite laminates using a compression molding process and then the mechanical properties were characterized using experimental test methods. Properties like stiffness, strength, and strain-to-failure of the composite were characterized using standard ASTM methods, and the resulting properties were directly fed into a computational material model. However, in order to characterize more complex material responses, like delamination between layers, a special through thickness butt-joint test was utilized so that the physical properties in the test matched the physics in the modeling and simulation environment. Several lessons were learned throughout the study, which may be useful to engineers and researchers looking to integrate structural thermoplastic composites into future military ground systems.

Citation: E. Patton, R. Hart, “Manufacturing, Modeling, and Characterizing Thermoplastic Composites for Military Vehicle Applications,” In Proceedings of the Ground Vehicle Systems Engineering and Technology Symposium (GVSETS), NDIA, Novi, MI, Aug. 16-18, 2022.