Date of Award

Summer 8-2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering

Program/Concentration

Mechanical Engineering

Committee Director

Oleksandr G. Kravchenko

Committee Member

Miltos Kotinis

Committee Member

Gene Hou

Committee Member

Abdelmageed Elmustafa

Committee Member

Sergii G. Kravchenko

Abstract

A physics informed, AI-augmented framework is developed to enable digital twins of molded composite materials by linking manufacturing induced residual stresses to a local meso-structure. By reconstructing and explicitly modeling these architectures, the framework reveals how processing driven meso-structural variability governs stiffness, damage evolution, and failure. The work focuses on two technologically important systems: prepreg platelet molded composites (PPMC), characterized by inherently stochastic platelet architectures, and 2/2 twill glass fiber/PA6 organosheets, whose periodic but locally variable weave geometry influences mechanical response. For PPMC, the Residual Stress Informed Microstructure Reconstruction (ResIMiR) framework is introduced, combining thermoelastic strain fields with deep learning models trained on high fidelity synthetic platelet morphologies. ResIMiR reconstructs both average and platelet-scale orientation fields from surface strain and low-resolution CT, enabling non-destructive inference of internal architecture. The reconstructed morphologies are incorporated into mesoscale progressive failure simulations to assess stiffness, failure initiation, and uncertainty. For woven organosheets, high-resolution μCT and explicit finite element modeling demonstrate how tow undulation, resin pockets, and local weave positioning drive variability in unnotched and notched tensile responses. Together, these advances establish a unified pathway for connecting a processing driven meso-structure to damage evolution and for enabling AI-based digital twins that support predictive modeling and future uncertainty quantification in molded composites.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

DOI

10.25777/vzvx-7t77

ISBN

9798193214168

ORCID

0009-0001-6959-4922

Download

Share

COinS