Development of a new finite element formulation for the elasto-plastic analysis of fiber-reinforced composites

1990 ◽  
Vol 35 (5) ◽  
pp. 563-570 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y.W. Kwon ◽  
K.Y. Byun
Author(s):  
Chensong Dong

The coefficients of thermal expansion (CTEs) of fiber reinforced composites play an important role in the design and analysis of composite structures. Since the thermal expansion coefficients of polymer matrix materials are typically much higher than those of fibers, and the fiber often exhibits anisotropic thermal and mechanical properties, the stress induced in the composite due to temperature change is very complex. Large discrepancies exist among the analytical models for the transverse CTE of unidirectional composites. Hence, it is problematic when choosing a suitable model. With the development of computer technologies, finite element analysis (FEA) proved its effectiveness in calculating the effective CTE of composites. In this study, the transverse CTEs of unidirectional carbon fiber composites were calculated by finite element analysis using a representative unit cell. The analytical micromechanical models from literature were compared against the FEA data. It shows that Hashin’s concentric cylinder model is the best. However, it is inconvenient for practical applications due to the amount of computation. In this study, based on the FEA data, an engineering model for predicting the transverse CTE of unidirectional composites was developed by regression analysis. This model was validated against the FEA and experimental data. It shows that the developed model provides a simple and accurate approach to calculate the transverse CTE of unidirectional composites.


Author(s):  
M. M. Shokrieh ◽  
A. R. Ghanei Mohammadi

In this paper, a new finite element model has been introduced with the aim of efficient investigation of residual thermal stresses in fiber-reinforced composites, in which the inhomogeneous interphase is considered. For the inhomogeneous interphase modeling, four different kinds of material properties variation of the interphase (power, reciprocal, cubic and exponential variations) with the radial coordinate have been used. A mono fiber circular unit cell is considered using a finite element (FE) method. Extending the mono fiber model, FE models with different arrays of fibers have been created to investigate the effects of neighboring fibers on the results. In order to assure the convergence of results, a convergence analysis has been carried out for each of the models. To verify the finite element model, the FE results are compared with theoretical results available in the literature. In this paper, three different types of RVE configurations, circular, square and hexagonal are modeled and the effects of each type of fiber packing are studied. Performing an extensive study, the appropriate boundary conditions for RVEs are presented. The boundary conditions presented in this research are proved to be able to model the overall behavior efficiently.


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