Considering that Japan’s materials manufacturers command a large share of the market for carbon fiber, we believe that developing basic simulation software that enhances the use of carbon fiber reinforced plastic materials will effectively expand Japan’s manufacturing capability. The difficulty in making practical use of carbon fiber reinforced plastic lies in the lack of a methodology to assess its strength and reliability. It is difficult to assess the strength of carbon fiber bundles that are formed in plastic in a way that would take into account the mechanisms through which composite material microstructures exhibit their strength. To solve this problem, in this project, we will develop simulation software that enables assessment that takes into account the manufacturing process of the carbon fiber reinforced plastic, i.e., the fiber bundle alignment at the micro level and the cure process of the plastic.
To validate the applicability of the simulation, we plan to tackle the problem of designing high-pressure hydrogen vessels for fuel cell vehicles that are reinforced by winding carbon fiber bundles on the plastic or aluminum liner.
FRP Strength Reliability Analysis by FrontCOMP
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