Publications

Composite material combustion modeling using thermally interacting, chemically reactive Lagrangian particles

Pierce, Flint P.; Brown, Alexander L.; Voskuilen, Tyler; Koo, Heeseok

Heterogeneous material combustion presents difficulties for computational simulation correlated with the complex thermal and chemical phenomena observed in fires containing laminated epoxy carbon fiber-filled composites. Among these challenges are thermal and gas transport within and between composite layers and the surrounding gas, coupled to the chemical degradation of composite materials. In this paper, we describe a new approach to modeling burning and thermal transport in carbon fiber-filled epoxy laminates via an ensemble of thermally interacting, chemically reacting Lagrangian particles. These particles are arranged in conformations analogous to the topology of a pile of composite rubble, where thermal conduction occurs within and between composite layers, a function of the particle positions, sizes, and constituent materials. Particle chemical reactions proceed according to prescribed mechanisms resulting in enthalpy, mass, species, and momentum transfer between particle and gas phases. Here we present the results of a small set of example scenarios to illustrate the efficacy of this approach. We briefly discuss coupling of this capability to a Volume of Fluid approach for mixed phase (liquid, gas, solid) combustion in scenarios with both liquid and solid combustibles.