Smoothing artificial stress concentrations in voxel-based models of textile composites

Abstract Voxel meshing is an effective method to discretise the internal architectures of multi-phase materials. Spurious stresses are however introduced in the vicinity of a multi-material interface due to the stepped, block-like representation of smooth boundaries. A stress averaging technique is presented to eliminate artificial mesh-imposed stress concentrations. The effect of the local averaging domain size, averaging weight function, and mesh dependence is explored. The voxel finite element method with stress averaging is then further developed to study progressive damage propagation and failure analysis of composites. An additional control, based on the failure plane angle of each element, is included to ensure propagation of damage in the direction dictated by the physics of the process rather than mesh artefacts. It is found that the stress averaging technique is an effective way to alleviate local stress concentrations and can ensure correct damage and failure mode prediction when compared to a conformal mesh.

[1]  J. Lions,et al.  Inequalities in mechanics and physics , 1976 .

[2]  K. Tserpes,et al.  Progressive damage modelling of 3D fully interlaced woven composite materials , 2014 .

[3]  Andrew C. Long,et al.  Automated geometric modelling of textile structures , 2012 .

[4]  Nik Petrinic,et al.  An algorithm for determination of the fracture angle for the three dimensional Puck matrix failure criterion for UD composites , 2008 .

[5]  Ralph Müller,et al.  Smooth surface meshing for automated finite element model generation from 3D image data. , 2006, Journal of biomechanics.

[6]  H. Schürmann,et al.  FAILURE ANALYSIS OF FRP LAMINATES BY MEANS OF PHYSICALLY BASED PHENOMENOLOGICAL MODELS , 1998 .

[7]  Carlos González,et al.  Mechanical behavior of unidirectional fiber-reinforced polymers under transverse compression: Microscopic mechanisms and modeling , 2007 .

[8]  Guodong Fang,et al.  A review of numerical modeling of three-dimensional braided textile composites , 2011 .

[9]  Siegfried Schmauder,et al.  3D-finite-element-modelling of microstructures with the method of multiphase elements , 1997 .

[10]  R E Guldberg,et al.  Improving the local solution accuracy of large-scale digital image-based finite element analyses. , 2000, Journal of biomechanics.

[11]  S. Adanur,et al.  Modeling of Elastic, Thermal, and Strength/Failure Analysis of Two-Dimensional Woven Composites—A Review , 2007 .

[12]  Ted Belytschko,et al.  Structured extended finite element methods for solids defined by implicit surfaces , 2002 .

[13]  R. Cuntze,et al.  The predictive capability of failure mode concept-based strength criteria for multi-directional laminates—part B , 2004 .

[14]  Brian N. Cox,et al.  A binary model of textile composites—II. The elastic regime , 1995 .

[15]  Stephen R Hallett,et al.  Mechanical modelling of 3D woven composites considering realistic unit cell geometry , 2014 .

[16]  Stephen R Hallett,et al.  Kinematic modelling of 3D woven fabric deformation for structural scale features , 2014 .

[17]  Guoqiang Yu,et al.  Micro-XCT-based finite element method for prediction of elastic modulus of plane woven carbon fiber-reinforced ceramic matrix composites , 2015 .

[18]  F. Irisarri,et al.  Comparison between voxel and consistent meso-scale models of woven composites , 2015 .

[19]  Ireneusz Lapczyk,et al.  Progressive damage modeling in fiber-reinforced materials , 2007 .

[20]  Brian N. Cox,et al.  A Binary Model of textile composites: III high failure strain and work of fracture in 3D weaves , 2003 .

[21]  Masaru Zako,et al.  Finite element analysis of damaged woven fabric composite materials , 2003 .

[22]  Michael R Wisnom,et al.  Development of Domain Superposition Technique for the Modelling of Woven Fabric Composites , 2008 .

[23]  Tsu-Wei Chou,et al.  An Analytical and Experimental Study of Strength and Failure Behavior of Plain Weave Composites , 1998 .

[24]  Z. Bažant,et al.  Crack band theory for fracture of concrete , 1983 .

[25]  D. Mollenhauer,et al.  Independent Mesh Method Based Prediction of Local and Volume Average Fields in Textile Composites , 2008 .

[26]  Jean-François Remacle,et al.  A computational approach to handle complex microstructure geometries , 2003 .

[27]  Silvestre T. Pinho,et al.  Reducing the domain in the mechanical analysis of periodic structures, with application to woven composites , 2011 .

[28]  Pedro P. Camanho,et al.  A continuum damage model for composite laminates: Part II – Computational implementation and validation , 2007 .

[29]  B S Myers,et al.  An improved method for finite element mesh generation of geometrically complex structures with application to the skullbase. , 1997, Journal of biomechanics.

[30]  Jun Liang,et al.  Investigation on the compressive properties of the three dimensional four-directional braided composites , 2011 .

[31]  Grant P. Steven,et al.  Modelling for predicting the mechanical properties of textile composites : A review , 1997 .

[32]  S. Lomov,et al.  Modelling the structure and behaviour of 2D and 3D woven composites used in aerospace applications , 2015 .

[33]  Ted Belytschko,et al.  Elastic crack growth in finite elements with minimal remeshing , 1999 .