Correlation analysis of the elastic‐ideal plastic material behavior of short fiber‐reinforced composites

Abstract

AbstractFor the numerical simulation of short fiber‐reinforced composites and the correct analysis of the deformation, information about the plastic behavior and its spatial distribution is essential. When using purely deterministic modeling approaches information of the probabilistic microstructure is not included in the simulation process. One possible approach for the integration of stochastic information is the use of random fields, which requires information about the correlation structure of all material input parameters. In this study the correlation structure for finite strain elasto‐plastic material behavior of short fiber‐reinforced composites is analyzed. This approach combines the use of already established procedures for linear‐elastic material behavior with a homogenization method for plasticity. The obtained results reveal a complex correlation structure, which is approximated with triangle and exponential correlation functions influenced by the window size. Due to the dependence of the hyperelastic and plastic material parameters on the fiber mass fraction, the strain‐energy density function coefficients are cross‐correlated with the yield strength of the composite. With this knowledge at hand, in a subsequent work numerical simulations of tensile tests are conducted that cover the elastic and plastic domain and include spatially distributed material properties.