A comparison of homogenization and standard mechanics analyses for periodic porous composites

Composite material elastic behavior has been studied using many approaches, all of which are based on the concept of a Representative Volume Element (RVE). Most methods accurately estimate effective elastic properties when the ratio of the RVE size to the global structural dimensions, denoted here as , goes to zero. However, many composites are locally periodic with finite . The purpose of this paper was to compare homogenization and standard mechanics RVE based analyses for periodic porous composites with finite . Both methods were implemented using a displacement based finite element formulation. For one-dimensional analyses of composite bars the two methods were equivalent. Howver, for two- and three-dimensional analyses the methods were quite different due to the fact that the local RVE stress and strain state was not determined uniquely by the applied boundary conditions. For two-dimensional analyses of porous periodic composites the effective material properties predicted by standard mechanics approaches using multiple cell RVEs converged to the homogenization predictions using one cell. In addition, homogenization estimates of local strain energy density were within 30% of direct analyses while standard mechanics approaches generally differed from direct analyses by more than 70%. These results suggest that homogenization theory is preferable over standard mechanics of materials approaches for periodic composites even when the material is only locally periodic and is finite.     

圆环形截面压电纤维复合材料有效电弹性性能研究

研究含周期分布压电纤维的压电复合材料的有效电弹性性能。通过在材料代表性体积单元边界上施加位移和电势周期边界条件,利用有限元法求得了代表性体积单元内的电弹性场。由平均电弹性场和压电复合材料有效电弹性性能定义,预测了圆环形截面压电纤维复合材料的有效电弹性系数。通过算例,比较了相同压电材料体积分数下圆环形截面压电纤维复合材料与圆截面压电纤维复合材料有效电弹性性能的差异,讨论了圆环形截面压电纤维内部非压电填充物的力学性质对有效压电系数的影响。该文结论可为高灵敏度压电复合材料设计提供 参考。     

Micro–macro homogenization of granular materials based on the average-field theory of Cosserat continuum

This paper performs further study on the micro–macro homogenization approach of granular materials (Li et al., 2010) based on the advancement of Hill’s lemma for Cosserat continuum (Liu, 2013). Firstly, the average couple stress tensor, expressed as the volume integration of quantities over the representative volume element (RVE) in the average-field theory of Cosserat continuum, is further deduced and expressed in terms of discrete quantities on the discrete particle assembly RVE of granular materials. The expression is also discussed and compared with other typical definitions of the effective couple stress tensor for granular materials in the literature. Then, rate forms of micromechanically based constitutive models consistent with different types of RVE boundary conditions are derived and discussed. Since the presented micro–macro homogenization approach is used, not only the micro–macro energy equivalence is satisfied, but also the microstructure and its evolution can be taken into account in the constitutive formulation with no need of specifying macroscopic phenomenological constitutive model.     

基于改进PSO算法的非均匀材料区间均匀化分析

利用区间均匀化方法对有限弹性变形下的非均匀材料进行了研究,引入多尺度有限元机制,将非均匀材料等效为某个非局部的代表性体积单元（RVE）。采用基于多尺度有限元与改进的粒子群（PSO）算法相结合的方式,对非均匀材料的有效参数（如弹性张量和第一Piola-Kirchhoff应力以及应变能等）进行了区间分析,充分考虑了代表性体积单元在不同边界条件下的区间参数的不确定性,以及不同区间条件对于代表性体积单元的有效参数的影响。      

BEM for crack-hole problems in thermopiezoelectric materials

The boundary element formulation for analysing interaction between a hole and multiple cracks in piezoelectric materials is presented. Using Green's function for hole problems and variational principle, a boundary element model (BEM) for a 2-D thermopiezoelectric solid with cracks and holes has been developed and used to calculate stress intensity factors of the crack-hole problem. In BEM, the boundary condition on the hole circumference is satisfied a priori by Green's function, and is not involved in the boundary element equations. The method is applicable to multiple-crack problems in both finite and infinite solids. Numerical results for stress and electric displacement intensity factors at a particular crack tip in a crack-hole system of piezoelectric materials are presented to illustrate the application of the proposed formulation.     

A FE2 shell model with periodic boundary conditions for thin and thick shells

In this article a FE2 shell model for thin and thick shells within a first order homogenization scheme is presented. A variational formulation for the two-scale boundary value problem and the associated finite element formulation is developed. Constraints with 5 or 9 Lagrange parameters are derived which eliminate both rigid body movements and dependencies of the shear stiffness on the size of the representative volume elements (RVEs). At the bottom and top surface of the RVEs which extend through the total thickness of the shell stress boundary conditions are present. The periodic boundary conditions at the lateral surfaces are applied in such a way that particular membrane, bending and shear modes are not restrained. This is shown by means of a homogeneous RVE. The first of all linear formulation is extended to finite strain problems introducing transformation relations for the stress resultants and the material matrix. The transformations are performed at the Gauss points on macro level. Several boundary value problems including large deformations, stability and inelasticity are computed and compared with 3D reference solutions.     

On numerical evaluation of effective material properties for composite structures with rhombic fiber arrangements

This paper deals with unidirectional fiber reinforced composites with rhombic fiber arrangements. It is assumed, that there is a periodic structure on micro level, which can be taken by homogenization as a representative volume element (RVE) for the composite, where the composite phases have isotropic or transversely isotropic material characterizations. A special procedure is developed to handle the primary non-rectangular periodicity with common numerical homogenization techniques based on FE-models. Due to appropriate boundary conditions applied to the RVE elastic effective macroscopic coefficients are derived. Results are listed and compared with other publications and good agreements are shown. Furthermore new results are presented, which exhibit the special orthotropic behavior of such composites caused by the rhombic fiber arrangement.     

Effective thermal properties of viscoelastic composites having field-dependent constituent properties

This study introduces a micromechanical model for predicting effective thermal properties (linear coefficient of thermal expansion and thermal conductivity) of viscoelastic composites having solid spherical particle reinforcements. A representative volume element (RVE) of the composites is modeled by a single particle embedded in the cubic matrix. Periodic boundary conditions are imposed to the RVE. The micromechanical model consists of four particle and matrix subcells. Micromechanical relations are formulated in terms of incremental average field quantities, i.e., stress, strain, heat flux and temperature gradient, in the subcells. Perfect bonds are assumed along the subcell’s interfaces. Stress and temperature-dependent viscoelastic constitutive models are used for the isotropic constituents in the micromechanical model. Thermal properties of the particle and matrix constituents are temperature dependent. The effective coefficient of thermal expansion is derived by satisfying displacement and traction continuity at the interfaces during thermo-viscoelastic deformations. This formulation leads to an effective time–temperature–stress-dependent coefficient of thermal expansion. The effective thermal conductivity is formulated by imposing heat flux and temperature continuity at the subcells’ interfaces. The effective thermal properties obtained from the micromechanical model are compared with analytical solutions and experimental data available in the literature. Finally, parametric studies are also performed to investigate the effects of nonlinear thermal and mechanical properties of each constituent on the overall thermal properties of the composite.     

BEM for crack‐inclusion problems of plane thermopiezoelectric solids

The problem of interactions between an inclusion and multiple cracks in a thermopiezoelectric solid is considered by boundary element method (BEM) in this paper. First of all, a BEM for the crack–inclusion problem is developed by way of potential variational principle, the concept of dislocation, and Green's function. In the BE model, the continuity condition of the interface between inclusion and matrix is satisfied, a priori, by the Green's function, and not involved in the boundary element equations. This is then followed by expressing the stress and electric displacement (SED) and elastic displacements and electric potential (EDEP) in terms of polynomials of complex variables ξ_t and ξ_k in the transformed ξ‐plane in order to simulate SED intensity factors by the BEM. The least‐squares method incorporating the BE formulation can, then, be used to calculate SED intensity factors directly. Numerical results for a piezoelectric plate with one inclusion and a crack are presented to illustrate the application of the proposed formulation. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Scale transition and enforcement of RVE boundary conditions in second‐order computational homogenization

Formulation of the scale transition equations coupling the microscopic and macroscopic variables in the second‐order computational homogenization of heterogeneous materials and the enforcement of generalized boundary conditions for the representative volume element (RVE) are considered. The proposed formulation builds on current approaches by allowing any type of RVE boundary conditions (e.g. displacement, traction, periodic) and arbitrary shapes of RVE to be applied in a unified manner. The formulation offers a useful geometric interpretation for the assumptions associated with the microstructural displacement fluctuation field within the RVE, which is here extended to second‐order computational homogenization. A unified approach to the enforcement of the boundary conditions has been undertaken using multiple constraint projection matrices. The results of an illustrative shear layer model problem indicate that the displacement and traction RVE boundary conditions provide the upper and lower bounds of the response determined via second‐order computational homogenization, and the solution associated with the periodic RVE boundary conditions lies between them. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

均质化法在分析非连续碳纳米管增强复合材料微观应力分布规律中的应用

利用具有精确周期性边界条件的均质化理论, 用宏微观有限元法分析了非连续碳纳米管呈规则和交错2 种排列情况下, 纳米管沿管长方向的应力分布规律。为保证传统的连续力学理论的适用性, 本文中的碳纳米管采用了用分子动力学方法简化的等效纤维模型。规则排列所得结果与应用Cox 剪滞理论及Lauke、Fu 等经典理论得出的结果比较发现: 除了经典理论中指出的碳纳米管长径比及纳米管体积含量2 个因素外, 纳米管形状及在基体中的排列方式对材料的力学性质也有较大影响。交错排列的纳米管在复合材料中有较高效率的应力转化和传递能力, 碳纳米管的端部间距(2 T_f ) 对应力的分布有较大的影响。结果显示出碳纳米管作为材料增强相的特殊性, 证明了均质化理论分析碳纳米管增强复合材料应力分布规律的可行性。      

Multi-scale analysis of the early damage mechanics of ferritized ductile iron

A multiscale computational homogenization method for the modeling of hydro-mechanical coupling problem for quasi-brittle materials is developed. The present method is based on an asymptotic expansion homogenization combined with the semi-concurrent finite element modelling approach. Modified periodic boundary conditions and a molecular dynamics (MD) based inclusion or filler generation procedure are devised for the hydro-mechanical coupling problem. A modified elastic damage constitutive model and a damage induced permeability law have been developed for the hydraulic fracturing. The statistical convergence of the microscale representative volume element (RVE) model regarding the RVE characteristic size is studied. It was found that the RVE characteristic size is determined by both the mechanical and hydraulic properties of the RVE simultaneously. The present method is validated by the experimental results for brittle material. The damage zone and crack propagation path captured by the present method is compared with the experimental results (Chitrala et al. in J Pet Sci Eng 108:151–161, 2013). The results show that the present method is an effective for the modelling of hydro-mechanical coupling for brittle materials.     

A nonlocal computational homogenization of softening quasi-brittle materials

In this paper, a computational counterpart of the experimental investigation is presented based on a nonlocal computational homogenization technique for extracting damage model parameters in quasi-brittle materials with softening behavior. The technique is illustrated by introducing the macroscopic nonlocal strain to eliminate the mesh sensitivity in the macroscale level as well as the size dependence of the representative volume element (RVE) in the first-order continuous homogenization. The macroscopic nonlocal strains are computed at each direction, and both the local and nonlocal strains are transferred to the microscale level. Two RVEs with similar geometries and material properties are introduced for each macroscopic Gauss point, in which the microscopic damage variables and the macroscale consistent tangent modulus and its derivatives are obtained by imposing the macroscopic nonlocal strain on the first RVE, and the macroscopic stress is computed by employing the microscopic damage variables and imposing the macroscopic local strain over the second RVE. Finally, numerical examples are solved to illustrate the performance of the proposed nonlocal computational homogenization technique for softening quasi-brittle materials.     

二维二轴1×1编织复合材料细观结构模型及力学性能有限元分析

考虑纤维束相互挤压及横截面形状变化, 采用纤维束截面六边形假设, 建立了二维二轴1×1编织复合材料的参数化单胞结构模型。通过引入周期性位移边界条件, 基于细观有限元方法, 对编织材料的弹性性能进行预测, 讨论了编织角及纤维体积含量对面内弹性常数的影响, 并分析了典型载荷下单胞细观应力场分布。研究表明: 单胞结构模型有效反映了纤维束的空间构型和交织特征, 实现了不同编织工艺参数下模型的快速建立; 基于单胞有限元模型的弹性性能预测结果与试验结果较为吻合; 模型给出了单胞合理的应力场分布, 为二维编织复合材料的结构优化和损伤预测奠定基础。      

A numerical method for homogenization in non-linear elasticity

In this work, homogenization of heterogeneous materials in the context of elasticity is addressed, where the effective constitutive behavior of a heterogeneous material is sought. Both linear and non-linear elastic regimes are considered. Central to the homogenization process is the identification of a statistically representative volume element (RVE) for the heterogeneous material. In the linear regime, aspects of this identification is investigated and a numerical scheme is introduced to determine the RVE size. The approach followed in the linear regime is extended to the non-linear regime by introducing stress–strain state characterization parameters. Next, the concept of a material map, where one identifies the constitutive behavior of a material in a discrete sense, is discussed together with its implementation in the finite element method. The homogenization of the non-linearly elastic heterogeneous material is then realized through the computation of its effective material map using a numerically identified RVE. It is shown that the use of material maps for the macroscopic analysis of heterogeneous structures leads to significant reductions in computation time.     

Modeling of interface cracks in fiber-reinforced composites with the presence of interphases using the boundary element method

An advanced boundary element method (BEM) with thin-body capabilities was developed recently for the study of interphases in fiber-reinforced composite materials (Y.J. Liu, N. Xu and J.F. Luo, Modeling of interphases in fiber-reinforced composites under transverse loading using the boundary element method, ASME J. Appl. Mech. 67 (2000) 41–49). In this BEM approach, the interphases are modeled as thin elastic layers based on the elasticity theory, as opposed to spring-like models in the previous BEM and some FEM work. In the present paper, this advanced BEM is extended to study the interface cracks at the interphases in the fiber-reinforced composites. These interface cracks are curved cracks between the fiber and matrix, with the presence of the interphases. Stress intensity factors (SIFs) for these interface cracks are evaluated based on the developed models. The BEM approach is validated first using available analytical and other numerical results for curved cracks in a single material and straight interface cracks between two materials. Then, the interface cracks at the interphases of fiber-reinforced composites are studied and the effects of the interphases (such as the thickness and materials) on the SIFs are investigated. As a special case, results of the SIFs for sub-interface cracks are also presented. It is shown that the developed BEM is very accurate and efficient for the interface crack analyses, and that the properties of the interphases have significant influences on the SIFs for interface cracks in fiber-reinforced composites.     

A wavelet method for reducing the computational cost of BE-based homogenization analysis

A wavelet BEM is applied to the evaluation of the effective elastic moduli of unidirectional composites, based on the homogenization theory. This attempt is devoted to the reduction of computational cost for the BE-based homogenization analysis. Truncation for matrix compression is carried out by the Beylkin-type algorithm. A thresholding value for the truncation is set such that the discretization error of BE solution is comparable to its truncation error. Besides, rearrangement of the BE equations is proposed to attain rapid convergence of iterative solutions. Through investigation of asymptotical convergence of the effective moduli, it is found that the BE-based homogenization analysis ensures the same rate of convergence for effective moduli as for characteristic functions. By applying the wavelet BEM to heterogeneous media which have microstructures with many voids, the effective moduli with agreement of 2–4 digits can be evaluated using 20–50% memory requirements of conventional BE approaches.     

Hill’s lemma for the average-field theory of Cosserat continuum

There are two typical definitions for the macroscopic average couple stress tensor in the literature, which brings confusion and difficulty to the establishment of Hill’s lemma for heterogeneous Cosserat continuum. Besides, some boundary conditions on the representative volume element (RVE) commonly used in the homogenization method cannot be properly determined by the existing version of Hill’s lemma of Cosserat continuum. To deal with these issues, Hill’s lemma for micro-macro homogenization modeling of Cosserat continuum is further investigated in the frame of the average-field theory in this paper. An intermediate form of Hill’s lemma is constructed in which the micromechanically based definition of the average couple stress tensor is not specified. By substituting two existing definitions of the average couple stress tensor into the presented intermediate form, not only the previous version of Hill’s lemma is derived, but also a new version of Hill’s lemma is obtained. According to the new version of Hill’s lemma, more versatile RVE boundary conditions in the strong form can be properly given, and the periodic RVE boundary conditions in the weak form are also constructed.     

Formulation and implementation of stress‐driven and/or strain‐driven computational homogenization for finite strain

In this paper, we present a homogenization approach that can be used in the geometrically nonlinear regime for stress‐driven and strain‐driven homogenization and even a combination of both. Special attention is paid to the straightforward implementation in combination with the finite‐element method. The formulation follows directly from the principle of virtual work, the periodic boundary conditions, and the Hill–Mandel principle of macro‐homogeneity. The periodic boundary conditions are implemented using the Lagrange multiplier method to link macroscopic strain to the boundary displacements of the computational model of a representative volume element. We include the macroscopic strain as a set of additional degrees of freedom in the formulation. Via the Lagrange multipliers, the macroscopic stress naturally arises as the associated ‘forces’ that are conjugate to the macroscopic strain ‘displacements’. In contrast to most homogenization schemes, the second Piola–Kirchhoff stress and Green–Lagrange strain have been chosen for the macroscopic stress and strain measures in this formulation. The usage of other stress and strain measures such as the first Piola–Kirchhoff stress and the deformation gradient is discussed in the Appendix. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A homogenization technique for heat transfer in periodic granular materials

A homogenization technique is proposed to simulate the thermal conduction of periodic granular materials in vacuum. The effective thermal conductivity (ETC) and effective volumetric heat capacity (EVHC) can be obtained from the granular represent volume element (RVE) via average techniques: average heat flux and average temperature gradient can be formulated by the positions and heat flows of particles on the boundaries of the RVE as well as of the contact pairs within the RVE. With the thermal boundary condition imposed on the border region around the granular RVE, the ETC of the granular RVE can be computed from the average heat flux and average temperature gradient obtained from thermal discrete element method (DEM) simulations. The simulation results indicate that the ETC of the granular assembly consisting of simple-cubic arranged spheres coincides with the theoretical prediction. The homogenization technique is performed to obtain the ETC of the RVE consisting of random packed particles and the results exhibit the anisotropy of the thermal conduction properties of the RVE. Both the ETC and EVHC obtained are then employed to simulate the thermal conduction procedure in periodic granular materials with finite element analyses, which give the similar results of temperature profile and conduction properties as the DEM simulations.