Micromechanical Modeling and Simulation of Natural Fiber Polymer Composite

Abstract

Fiber-reinforced composite are widely used materials in today’s world. They have various applications in modern world viz. aircrafts, automobiles, construction industries, etc. Fiber-reinforced composites consist of matrix and fiber. The mechanical properties of composites depend upon various factors such as type of fiber, fiber length, and concentration of fiber. In this paper, micromechanical analysis of natural fiber-reinforced composite is presented. The experimental analysis of the composites is costly and time consuming. So, numerical analysis of composites is carried out. The analysis of composites is a tedious job due to the heterogeneous nature of composites. To overcome this, RVE model-based analysis is used which models the composite as homogeneous mixture of matrix and reinforcement by taking the properties of matrix and fiber as input. This analysis is carried out using DIGIMAT software and the results obtained are validated using rule of mixture model. From the results obtained, it is found out that mechanical properties enhance with the increase in weight concentration of fibers.