Determination of the Impact Damage Threshold Point of Composite Material Using Fuzzy-Base Taguchi Method

Abstract

In this study, the impact damage threshold point of composite materials was determined using the optimum design parameters obtained from the Fuzzy Based Taguchi Method (FBTM). It is known that both Taguchi and Fuzzy methods provide optimization of design parameters yet, in Taguchi method, optimization of design parameters is not sufficient in solving multi response optimization problem. Therefore, Fuzzy Logic system was combined with the Taguchi system for working out the multi-response optimization problem. In this study, the low velocity impact damage analyses were performed in an LS-DYNA 3D explicit finite element program. ASTM D7136/D7136M standard was used during the low velocity impact analyses. In explicit finite element analyses, contact algorithms were executed to observe better damage zone shapes. Furthermore, the control parameters (termination and computation time step) were tuned to provide perfect correlation with the force-energy-time histories. The study concluded that Fuzzy Based Taguchi Method (FBTM) is much more capable of optimizing the design parameters that predict the impact damage threshold point of the composite material.