Multiscale Reduced-Order Modeling of a Titanium Skin Panel Subjected to Thermo-Mechanical Loading

TL;DR

This paper introduces a multiscale reduced-order model for titanium panels under thermo-mechanical loading, integrating microstructural mechanisms with structural analysis to predict responses at multiple scales during high-speed flight conditions.

Contribution

It develops a coupled eigenstrain-based homogenization model that incorporates thermal effects and microstructure, calibrated with experimental data, for accurate multiscale simulation.

Findings

Model accurately predicts structural response under thermo-mechanical loading.

Microstructural effects significantly influence the material's behavior.

Temperature and texture impact the response of titanium panels.

Abstract

This manuscript presents the formulation, implementation, calibration and application of a multiscale reduced-order model to simulate a titanium panel structure subjected to thermo-mechanical loading associated with high-speed flight. The formulation is based on the eigenstrain-based reduced-order homogenization model (EHM) and further considers thermal strain as well as temperature dependent material properties and evolution laws. The material microstructure (i.e., at the scale of a polycrystalline representative volume element (RVE)) and underlying microstructural mechanisms are directly incorporated and fully coupled with a structural analysis, allowing concurrently probing the response at the structural scale and the material microscale. The proposed approach was fully calibrated using a series of uniaxial tension tests of Ti-6242S at a wide range of temperatures and two different strain rates. The calibrated model is then adopted to study the response of a generic aircraft skin panel subjected to thermo-mechanical loading associated with high-speed flight. The analysis focuses on demonstrating the capability of the model to predict not only the structural scale response, but simultaneously the microscale response, and further studies the effects of temperature and texture on the response.