Unidirectional high fiber content composites: Automatic 3D FE model generation and damage simulation

A new method and a software code for the automatic generation of 3D micromechanical FE models of unidirectional long-fiber-reinforced composite (LFRC) with high fiber volume fraction with random fiber arrangement are presented. The fiber arrangement in the cross-section is generated through random movements of fibers from their initial regular hexagonal arrangement. Damageable layers are introduced into the fibers to take into account the random distribution of the fiber strengths. A series of computational experiments on the glass fibers reinforced polymer epoxy matrix composite is performed to study the influence of the strength distribution of fibers on the mechanical response and strength of the composites.

[1]  J. Feder.  Random sequential adsorption , 1980 .

[2]  T. Okabe,et al.  Micromechanics of the fragmentation process in single-fiber composites , 2008 .

[3]  Donald F. Adams,et al.  Fracture behaviour of a single-fibre graphite/epoxy model composite containing a broken fibre or cracked matrix , 1983 .

[4]  M. Shioya,et al.  Estimation of fibre and interfacial shear strength by using a single-fibre composite , 1995 .

[5]  Leon Mishnaevsky,et al.  Computational modeling of crack propagation in real microstructures of steels and virtual testing of artificially designed materials , 2003 .

[6]  Noboru Kikuchi,et al.  Digital image-based modeling applied to the homogenization analysis of composite materials , 1997 .

[7]  N. J. Pagano,et al.  Quantitative description and numerical simulation of random microstructures of composites and their effective elastic moduli , 2003 .

[8]  Ning Pan,et al.  A Computer Simulation of Single Fiber Pull Out Process in a Composite , 2003 .

[9]  R. Pyrz.  Quantitative description of the microstructure of composites. Part I: Morphology of unidirectional composite systems , 1994 .

[10]  S. Torquato,et al.  Reconstructing random media , 1998 .

[11]  M. Gurvich,et al.  Statistical simulation of fiber fragmentation in a single-fiber composite , 1997 .

[12]  Carlos González,et al.  Multiscale modeling of fracture in fiber-reinforced composites , 2006 .

[13]  M. Meo,et al.  Finite element modelling of bridging micro-mechanics in through-thickness reinforced composite laminates , 2005 .

[14]  Rintoul,et al.  Reconstruction of the Structure of Dispersions , 1997, Journal of colloid and interface science.

[15]  P. Bowen,et al.  Micromodelling of crack growth in fibre reinforced composites , 1992 .

[16]  S. Schmauder,et al.  Numerical analysis of the effect of microstructures of particle-reinforced metallic materials on the crack growth and fracture resistance , 2004 .

[17]  D. Baptiste,et al.  Effect of microstructure of particle reinforced composites on the damage evolution: probabilistic and numerical analysis , 2004 .

[18]  M. Zako,et al.  Microstructure-based stress analysis and evaluation for porous ceramics by homogenization method with digital image-based modeling , 2003 .

[19]  Maria Kashtalyan,et al.  Analysis of composite laminates with intra- and interlaminar damage , 2005 .

[20]  Leon Mishnaevsky,et al.  Continuum mesomechanical finite element modeling in materials development: A state-of-the-art review * , 2001 .

[21]  Pedro P. Camanho,et al.  Generation of random distribution of fibres in long-fibre reinforced composites , 2008 .

[22]  Leon Mishnaevsky,et al.  Micromechanisms of damage in unidirectional fiber reinforced composites: 3D computational analysis , 2009 .

[23]  Leon Mishnaevsky,et al.  Single fibre and multifibre unit cell analysis of strength and cracking of unidirectional composites , 2009 .

[24]  L. Mishnaevsky,et al.  Three-dimensional numerical modelling of damage initiation in unidirectional fiber-reinforced composites with ductile matrix , 2008 .

[25]  H. Chen,et al.  Finite element analysis of single-fiber push-out tests of continuous Al2O3 fiber-reinforced NiAl composites , 2007 .

[26]  Leon Mishnaevsky,et al.  Computational mesomechanics of composites , 2007 .

[27]  Andrei A. Gusev,et al.  Fiber packing and elastic properties of a transversely random unidirectional glass/epoxy composite , 2000 .

[28]  A. Gokhale,et al.  Utility of microstructure modeling for simulation of micro-mechanical response of composites containing non-uniformly distributed fibers , 2000 .

[29]  Nobuo Takeda,et al.  Estimation of strength distribution for a fiber embedded in a single-fiber composite: experiments and statistical simulation based on the elasto-plastic shear-lag approach , 2001 .

[30]  Asim Tewari,et al.  MODELING OF NON-UNIFORM SPATIAL ARRANGEMENT OF FIBERS IN A CERAMIC MATRIX COMPOSITE , 1997 .

[31]  L. Mishnaevsky.  Functionally gradient metal matrix composites: Numerical analysis of the microstructure–strength relationships , 2006 .

[32]  Suhao Li,et al.  Micromechanical FE analysis of UD fibre-reinforced composites with fibres distributed at random over the transverse cross-section , 2005 .

[33]  H. Lilholt,et al.  Tensile strength and fracture surface characterisation of sized and unsized glass fibers , 2005 .