Comparison of Two Computational Microstructure Models for Predicting Effective Transverse Elastic Properties of Unidirectional Fiber Reinforced Composites

Authors

1 College of Civil Engineering & Architecture, Henan University of Technology, Zhengzhou, China

2 State Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis for Industrial Equipment, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China

Abstract

Characterization of properties of composites has attracted a great deal of attention towards exploring their applications in engineering. The purpose of this work is to study the difference of two computational microstructure models which are widely used for determining effective transverse elastic properties of unidirectional fiber reinforced composites. The first model based on the classic mechanics of materials permits free unloaded opposite boundaries in the unite cell, while the second one introduces straight-edge constraints in the unite cell to represent interactions of neighboring cells during deformation. The two approaches are firstly verified by the periodic circular hole problems. Then three microstructures are taken into consideration including the circular fibers, square fibers, and circular fiber clusters periodically embedded in the matrix and solved by finite element analysis. A comparison of the numerical results demonstrates that the two computational models with and without periodic conditions can give different predictions on the effective elastic properties of composite for both low and high fiber volume fractions, especially for the effective Poisson’s ratio of composite. Applying periodic straight-edge constraints after deformation can prevent any over-constrained conditions in the numerical model and give more stable results.

Keywords


1.     Kaw, A.K., "Mechanics of composite materials, Boston, CRC Press,  Vol. 51,  (2006).
2.     Jhanji, K.P., Kumar, R.A. and Likhith, P., "Influence of circular and square cut-outs on fiber glass/epoxy composite laminate under tensile loading", International Journal of Engineering,  Vol. 31, No. 1, (2018), 104-109.
3.     Prasanth, I.S.N.V.R., Ravishankar, D.V. and Hussain, M.M., "Analysis of milling process parameters and their influence on glass fiber reinforced polymer composites", International Journal of Engineering,  Vol. 30, No. 7, (2017), 1074-1080.
4.     Priya Jhanji, K., Amit Kumar, R. and Likhith, P., "Influence of circular and square cut-outs on fiber glass/epoxy composite laminate under tensile loading", International Journal of Engineering,  Vol. 31, No. 1, (2018), 104-109.
5.     Khamedi, R., Ahmadi, I., Hashemi, M. and Ahmaditabar, K., "Stiffness prediction of beech wood flour polypropylene composite by using proper fiber orientation distribution function", International Journal of Engineering,  Vol. 30, No. 4, (2017), 582-590.
6.     Ko, Y.F. and Ju, J.W., "New higher-order bounds on effective transverse elastic moduli of three-phase fiber-reinforced composites with randomly located and interacting aligned circular fibers", Acta Mechanica,  Vol. 223, No. 11, (2012), 2437-2458.
7.     Kushch, V.I., Shmegera, S.V., Brondsted, P. and Jr, L.M., "Numerical simulation of progressive debonding in fiber reinforced composite under transverse loading", International Journal of Engineering Science,  Vol. 49, No. 1, (2011), 17-29.
8.     Lei, Y.P., Wang, H. and Qin, Q.H., "Micromechanical properties of unidirectional composites filled with single and clustered shaped fibers", Science & Engineering of Composite Materials,  Vol. 25, No. 1, (2018), 143-152.
9.    Kari, S., Berger, H. and Gabbert, U., "Numerical evaluation of effective material properties of randomly distributed short cylindrical fibre composites", Computational Materials Science,  Vol. 39, (2007), 198-204.
10.   Wang, H., Liu, B., Kang, Y.X. and Qin, Q.H., "Analysing effective thermal conductivity of 2d closed-cell foam based on shrunk voronoi tessellations", Archives of Mechanics,  Vol. 69, No. 6, (2017), 451-470.
11.   Dong, C.Y., "Effective elastic properties of doubly periodic array of inclusions of various shapes by the boundary element method", International Journal of Solids & Structures,  Vol. 43, No. 25–26, (2006), 7919-7938.
12.   Liu, Y.J., Xu, N. and Luo, J.F., "Modeling of interphases in fiber-reinforced composites under transverse loading using the boundary element method", Journal of Applied Mechanics,  Vol. 67, (2000), 41-49.
13.   Qin, Q.H. and Wang, H., "Special elements for composites containing hexagonal and circular fibers", International Journal of Computational Methods,  Vol. 12, No. 4, (2015), 1540012 (1540017 pages).
14.   Wang, H. and Qin, Q.H., "A new special coating/fiber element for analyzing effect of interface on thermal conductivity of composites", Applied Mathematics and Computation,  Vol. 268, (2015), 311-321.
15.   Wang, H., Zhao, X.J. and Wang, J.S., "Interaction analysis of multiple coated fibers in cement composites by special n-sided interphase/fiber elements", Composites Science and Technology,  Vol. 118, (2015), 117-126.
16.   Wang, H., Qin, Q.H. and Xiao, Y., "Special n-sided voronoi fiber/matrix elements for clustering thermal effect in natural-hemp-fiber-filled cement composites", International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer,  Vol. 92, (2016), 228-235.
17.   Kalamkarov, A.L., Andrianov, I.V. and Danishevs'kyy, V.V., "Asymptotic homogenization of composite materials and structures", Applied Mechanics Reviews,  Vol. 62, (2009), 030802.
18.   Wang, J.L., Crouch, S.L. and Mogilevskaya, S.G., "Numerical modeling of the elastic behavior of fiber-reinforced composites with inhomogeneous interphases", Composites Science and Technology,  Vol. 66, (2006), 1-18.
19.   Sadowski, T. and Pankowski, B., "Numerical modelling of two-phase ceramic composite response under uniaxial loading", Composite Structures,  Vol. 143, (2016), 388-394.
20.   Chen, Y.Z. and Kang, Y.L., "Two-dimensional elastic analysis of doubly periodic circular holes in infinite plane", KSME International Journal,  Vol. 16, No. 5, (2002), 655-665.
21.   Antunes, F.V., Ferreira, J.A.M. and Capela, C., "Numerical modelling of the young's modulus of syntactic foams", Finite Elements in Analysis and Design,  Vol. 47, (2011), 78-84.
22.   Wang, H., Kang, Y.X., Liu, B. and Qin, Q.H., "Effect of the orientation of hexagonal fibers on the effective elastic properties of unidirectional composites", Journal of Mechanics,  Vol. 34, No. 3, (2018), 257-267.