Micromechanics, fracture mechanics and gas permeability of composite laminates for cryogenic storage systems

A micromechanics method is developed to investigate microcrack propagation in a liquid hydrogen composite tank at cryogenic temperature. The unit cell is modeled using square and hexagonal shapes depends on fiber and matrix layout from microscopic images of composite laminates. Periodic boundary conditions are applied to the unit cell. The temperature dependent properties are taken into account in the analysis. The laminate properties estimated by the micromechanics method are compared with empirical solutions using constituent properties. The micro stresses in the fiber and matrix phases based on boundary conditions in laminate level are calculated to predict the formation of microcracks in the matrix. The method is applied to an actual liquid hydrogen storage system. The analysis predicts micro stresses in the matrix phase are large enough to cause microcracks in the composite.; Stress singularity of a transverse crack normal to a ply-interface is investigated to predict the fracture behavior at cryogenic conditions using analytical and finite element analysis. When a transverse crack touches a ply-interface of a composite layer with same fiber orientation, the stress singularity is equal to ½. When the transverse crack propagates to a stiffer layer normal to a ply-direction, the singularity becomes less than ½ and vice versa. Finite element analysis is performed to evaluate fracture toughness of a laminated beam subjected to the fracture load measured by the fracture experiment at room and cryogenic temperatures. As results, the fracture load at cryogenic temperature is significantly lower than that at room temperature. However, when thermal stresses are taken into consideration, for both cases of room and cryogenic temperatures, the variation of fracture toughness becomes insignificant. The result indicates fracture toughness is a characteristic property which is independent to temperature changes.; The experimental analysis is performed to investigate the effect of cryogenic cycling on permeability for various composite material systems. The textile composite has lower permeability than laminated composites as cryogenic cycle increases. The nano-particles embedded on laminated composites do not show improvement on permeability. The optical inspection on composite materials is performed to investigate the microcrack propagation and compared the microscopic results before and after cryogenic cycling.