On Approaches to Combine Experimental Strength and Simulation with Application to Open-Hole-Tension Configuration

Abstract

This paper compares three surrogate-based procedures to predict the mean strength of composite structures. They are (i) fitting experiments in design space; (ii) combining simulations with experiments based on an improved simple framework of multi-fidelity surrogates; and (iii) using experiments to calibrate parameters in a failure criterion. These are applied to a plate with an open hole under tensile loading. The ratio of the width of the plate to the diameter of the hole, and the fraction of ±45o plies in the laminate, are used as two design variables. The objective of the surrogate model is predicting the strength of untested plates from tests of six combinations of the design variables. An extension to predicting B-basis allowables at untested points is also discussed.