| The purpose of this research is to develop an analytical tool which, when coupled with accelerated material characterization, is capable of predicting long-term durability of polymers and their composites.; Conducting creep test on each composite laminate with different fibers, fiber volume fractions, and weave architectures is impractical. Moreover, in case of thin laminates, accurately characterizing the out-of-plane matrix dominated viscoelastic response is not easily achievable. Therefore, the primary objective of this paper is to present a multi-scale modeling methodology to simulate the long-term interlaminar properties in polymer matrix woven composites and then predict the critical regions where failure is most likely to occur. A micromechanics approach towards modeling the out-of-plane viscoelastic behavior of a five-harness satin woven-fiber cross-ply composite laminate is presented, taking into consideration the weave architecture and time-dependent effects.; Short-term creep tests were performed on neat resin at different test temperatures and stress levels to characterize physical aging of the resin matrix. In addition, creep and recovery experiments were conducted on un-aged resin specimens in order to characterize the pronounced stress-dependent nonlinear viscoelastic response of the PR500 resin.; Two-dimensional micromechanics analysis was carried out using a test-bed finite element code, NOVA-3D, including interactions between non-linear material constitutive behavior, geometric nonlinearity, aging and environmental effects. |
