Micromechanical properties of unidirectional composites filled with single and clustered shaped fibers

Abstract

Computational micromechanics provides an efficient strategy to optimize composite materials by addressing the effect of different material and geometric parameters involved. In the present paper, the effective transverse elastic properties for periodic composite materials reinforced with single and clustered polygonal fibers are evaluated using the micromechanical finite element formulation subject to periodic displacement boundary conditions. The cross-sectional shapes of polygonal fibers are assumed to be triangular, square, pentagonal, hexagonal, octagonal, and circular to perform comprehensive investigation. By applying a periodic displacement constraint along the boundary of the representative unit cell of the composite to meet the requirement of straight-line constraint during the deformation of the unit cell, the computational micromechanical modeling based on homogenization technology is established for evaluating the effects of fiber shape and cluster on the overall properties. Subsequently, the micromechanical model is divided into four submodels, which are solved by means of the finite element analysis for determining the traction distributions along the cell boundary. Finally, the effective orthotropic elastic constants of composites are obtained using the solutions of the linear system of equations involving traction integrations to investigate the effects of fiber shape and cluster on the overall properties.