Meso- and micro-scale modeling of damage in plain weave composites

This paper presents a comparison of meso- and micro-scale approaches to modeling progressive damage in plain weave reinforced polymer matrix composites. The meso-scale approach treats the woven composite tows as effective materials, utilizing an anisotropic progressive continuum damage model. The micro-scale approach utilizes the Generalized Method of Cells semi-analytical micromechanics theory to represent the nonlinear response of the tows, wherein the same progressive damage model, now specialized to initially isotropic materials, is used to model the matrix material within the tows. For consistency, the micro-scale nonlinear tow predictions were used to characterize the anisotropic damage model for the tows for use in the meso-scale approach. The damage model thus plays a key role in the presented study as it must be three-dimensional to admit the in-situ stress state within the woven composite tows, and it must capture the coupling between directional damage components that is predicted by the micro-scale model for the tows. The developed three-dimensional, energy based, anisotropic, stiffness reduction damage model was implemented within Abaqus as a user constitutive model and within the Generalized Method of Cells. Hence, the identical plain weave composite geometry, modeled in Abaqus, was used in the meso-scale approach (with the anisotropic damage model representing the tows) and in the micro-scale approach (with the Generalized Method of Cells representing the tows).