Sensitivity analysis for simulated testing of composites: mapping via Isight and Abaqus

This article reports the effects of multiple interactive material parameters of composite material on the deformation response during a simulated three-point bending and tensile testing. The test specimens for both scenarios were modelled for a finite element analysis, where the laminated material was described using nine material parameters. Isight® and Abaqus® codes were used to map interactive combinations of material parameters to study the specimen-level effects of simulated aging. The procedure was defined using Latin Hypercube Sampling. Based on our analysis, a specific combination of parameters can be traced to cause the stiffness degradation due to simulated aging. These results are highly beneficial when developing numerical methods to analyse aging behaviour of composite structures.Peer reviewe