Micromechanical Modeling of Onset and Progression of Damage in Composite Structures

Abstract

Prediction of onset and progression of damage in composite materials with the capability of dealing with complex loadings and the heterogeneity of the constituents using appropriate failure criterion is the focus of this study. The micromechanics of failure (MMF), based on a unit cell model which describes the microstructure of the composite that uses independent failure criterion for each constituent, is proposed in this exercise. As the failure has been predicted at constituent level, micromechanics-based failure criteria show more predictive capabilities in heterogeneous composite structures. A modified failure prediction model has been proposed in this work to better capture the onset of failure, constituent's failure, and damage initiation in composites. The progression of damage is predicted using the micromechanics failure criteria with progressive degradation model until complete failure of the composite structure.