Damage simulation of fiber reinforced composites using mean‐field homogenization methods

Abstract

AbstractOur work presents a two‐scale mean‐field homogenization framework for constitutive multiscale (meso‐macro) modeling of fiber reinforced composites (FRC) including damage. The FRC is decomposed into three distinct linear thermo‐chemo‐elastic material phases. The three phases are unidirectional fibers surrounded by an interface, which is surrounded by a matrix material. Different mean‐field homogenization methods can be used to determine the effective properties. For the damage a distinction is made between four different damage modes namely matrix damage, fiber damage, interface damage and a simultaneous damage of the matrix and the fiber called matrix‐fiber damage. An element deletion algorithm is used to simulate a crack propagation. A representative example demonstrates the different types of damage and a resulting crack propagation in an FRC.