Micromechanical Progressive Failure Analyses of Composite Materials Using Continuum Decohesive Finite Element

Abstract

An efficient framework for microscopic progressive failure analysis of fiberreinforced composite is established using the continuum decohesive finite element (CDFE) method. CDFE is a novel finite element technique connecting continuum and cohesive crack modeling seamlessly. In CDFE, the transition from a continuum to non-continuum (cracked solid) is modeled by physically introducing pairs of crack dummy nodes. A static condensation algorithm is applied to solve for and preserve the crack separation information on the crack dummy nodes to facilitate the implementation of CDFE into general-purpose finite element solvers. In this paper, CDFE is applied to micromechanical progressive failure analyses on a representative volume element (RVE) of composite materials with randomly packed fibers. No crack path is predefined and the maximum principal stress criterion (MPSC) is used to determine the crack orientation and initiation. According to CDFE results, multiple microscopic cracks initiate at different locations and coalesce into a macroscopic transverse crack. By comparison with existing FE results and high-fidelity generalized method of cells (HFGMC) results, the CDFE framework proves to be accurate and efficient.