Micro/macro-mechanical analysis of the interface of composite structures by a differential quadrature hierarchical finite element method

Abstract

The interface of composite structures is usually modeled by assuming displacement continuous. However, the reality is that the interface is another type of material with different elastic constants and is generally of different scale compared with the matrix of the composites. This work uses a differential quadrature hierarchical finite element method (DQHFEM) to analyze the interface of composite structures. The DQHFEM allows a great number of nodes on the boundary of elements but only a few nodes inside the elements, or the reverse. Therefore, the method is very convenient for the two scale analysis of the problem. Interfaces of two types of materials are analyzed in this work: (1) the interaction of grains and grain boundaries of metals that are composites in microscale and (2) the interface of nanoparticles and the matrix of nanoparticle composites. The elastic constants of the components of composite structures are obtained from test results or by molecular dynamic simulations. Numerical analysis of the two types of composite structures shown that the DQHFEM is of high accuracy and efficiency and is suitable for two-scale analysis.