Modeling elastic properties of biocomposites using various analytical models and ansys material designer

Abstract

A major focus of emerging research is the design and development of new materials for future industries in order to replace older ones in an environment-friendly way. Composite material is one of them, especially biocomposites. Over the past few decades, there is a lot of advancement in developing composite materials. We can see the applications of composite materials are increasing day by day in aerospace, automotive, medical, and construction field. Generally, the properties of unidirectional composites are evaluated by analytical methods or by Finite element Method. We present here a study of the properties of unidirectional biocomposite by using Ansys Material Designer and compare them with analytical methods including Rule of mixtures (ROM), Modified Rule of mixtures (MROM), Halpin-Tsai, Chamis, and Elasticity Approach models. The use of finite element analysis requires rigorous analysis of representative volume element (RVE), results strongly depend on the loading and boundary conditions we applied. So it is a cumbersome task to find out the elastic constants of composites. Hence, we used Ansys material designer, which is the easiest and quickest way of modeling composites. It is also possible to model various RVEs like square, hexagonal, and diamond. The results obtained by analytical methods and Ansys material designer are compared through graphs and the explanation is provided for each deviation in the properties. The results show great accuracy as compared with analytical methods. Only the Transverse elastic modulus (E22) and in-plane shear modulus (G12) show slight variation in properties. As we got accurate results, we also proposed properties for Random unidirectional, Woven, and Chopped fiber composites also by using Ansys material designer.