FRACTURE ANALYSIS OF COMPOSITE METAMATERIALS
The quest for advanced materials with enhanced performance is always ongoing to meet the demanding performance requirements for evolving technological needs. Composites and Metamaterials are some examples of advanced materials where the properties can be tailored based on the application requirements. This work incorporates metamaterials as reinforcements to make composites structures with enhanced mechanical performance. With the advent of additive manufacturing and specifically multi-material printing, such complex composite structures can now be realized. In these fully dense metamaterial composites, we use pure Titanium (Ti) as the matrix and Titanium Aluminide (TiAl3) as the reinforcement phase with 80% volume fraction. This design is inspired by Nacre structure to enhance fracture resistance. Using Finite Element Analysis (FEA), we study the effect of reinforcement geometry (e.g., auxetic or non-Auxetic, higher orders of polygons and unit-cell size) on the overall performance of the composite structure. We investigate the fracture propagation in various metamaterial composites and compare it with conventional composites such as unidirectional fiber reinforced and laminate composites. Based on the outcome, design guidelines to make composite structures with enhanced fracture resistance is proposed.