On the realization of periodic boundary conditions for hexagonal unit cells

Abstract

In the context of homogenization of micro-heterogeneous materials, the choice of the Representative Volume Element (RV E) plays a crucial role. For periodic microstructures, an RV E is an underlying unit cell with periodic boundary conditions. Nevertheless, the question of the implementation of periodic boundary conditions may arise here; for example, some of the applications of periodic boundary conditions in the literature for hexagonal cells are incorrect or they are not given in detail. In this paper, we analyze periodic boundary conditions for two-dimensional hexagonal unit cells. Periodic boundary conditions are characterized by the periodic fluctuations in the displacement fields and anti-periodic traction vectors at associated points of the boundary of the unit cell. From comparative calculations with an ensemble of unit cells, it is evident that the natural choice for vanishing fluctuations is to be set on the midpoints of the six perimeter lines of the cell. The partially applied choice of vanishing fluctuations in the six corner points of the outer edge of the unit cell leads to wrong results. The boundary conditions proposed here are analyzed on the basis of representative examples and compared to the results with the incorrect boundary conditions.