Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T17:37:37.944Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Effect of the Orientation of Hexagonal Fibers on the Effective Elastic Properties of Unidirectional Composites

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 October 2016

H. Wang*
Affiliation:
Zhengzhou Key Laboratory of Scientific & Engineering ComputationHenan University of TechnologyZhengzhou, China Research School of EngineeringAustralian National UniversityCanberra, Australia
Y.-X. Kang
Affiliation:
Zhengzhou Key Laboratory of Scientific & Engineering ComputationHenan University of TechnologyZhengzhou, China
B. Liu
Affiliation:
Zhengzhou Key Laboratory of Scientific & Engineering ComputationHenan University of TechnologyZhengzhou, China
Q.-H. Qin*
Affiliation:
Research School of EngineeringAustralian National UniversityCanberra, Australia
Get access

Abstract

Existing studies reveal that the shape corners of hexagonal fiber affect the degree of constraint on the matrix material. However, none of these studies included the effect of orientation of hexagonal fibers. In this study, a computational micromechanics model of oriented hexagonal fibers in periodic unidirectional composite materials is established for the determination of effective orthotropic elastic properties of the composite. In the present numerical modeling, the representative unit composite cell including the matrix material and the single oriented hexagonal fiber or random oriented hexagonal fibers is solved by micro-scale finite element analysis with different stress loads and periodic displacement boundary conditions, which are applied along the cell boundary to meet the requirement of straight-line constraint during deformation of the cell. Subsequently, the effective elastic properties of the composite are evaluated for periodic regular packing and random packing using the homogenization approach for investigating the influence of unified orientation and random orientation of the hexagonal fibers on the overall elastic properties of the fiber-reinforced composites. The numerical results are verified by comparing with other available results.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Mallick, P. K., Fiber-Reinforced Composites: Materials, Manufacturing, and Design, 3th Edition, CRC press, Boca Raton, pp. 190 (2007).Google Scholar
2. Swolfs, Y., Verpoest, I. and Gorbatikh, L., “Issues in strength models for unidirectional fibre-reinforced composites related to Weibull distributions, fibre packings and boundary effects,” Composites Science and Technology, 114, pp. 4249 (2015).Google Scholar
3. Ismail, Y., Sheng, Y., Yang, D. M. and Ye, J. Q., “Discrete element modelling of unidirectional fibre-reinforced polymers under transverse tension,” Composites Part B: Engineering, 73, pp. 118125 (2015).Google Scholar
4. Szabó, B., “Unidirectional fiber-reinforced composite laminae: Homogenization and localization,” Computers & Mathematics with Applications, 70, pp. 16761684 (2015).Google Scholar
5. Alavinasab, A., Jha, R., Ahmadi, G., Cetinkaya, C. and Sokolov, I., “Computational modeling of nanostructured glass fibers,” Computational Materials Science, 44, pp. 622627 (2008).Google Scholar
6. Sabuncuoglu, B., Orlova, S., Gorbatikh, L., Lomov, S. V. and Verpoest, I., “Micro-scale finite element analysis of stress concentrations in steel fiber composites under transverse loading,” Journal of Composite Materials, 49, pp. 10571069 (2015).Google Scholar
7. Teply, J. L. and Dvorak, G. J., “Bounds on overall instantaneous properties of elastic-plastic composites,” Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 36, pp. 2958 (1988).Google Scholar
8. Brockenbrough, J. R., Suresh, S. and Wienecke, H. A., “Deformation of metal-matrix composites with continuous fibers: geometrical effects of fiber distribution and shape,” Acta Metallurgica et Materialia, 39, pp. 735752 (1991).Google Scholar
9. Zohdi, T. I. and Wriggers, P., An Introduction to Computational Micromechanics, Springer, Berlin, pp. 4584 (2008).Google Scholar
10. Qin, Q. H. and Yang, Q. S., Macro-Micro Theory on Multi-Field Coupling Behavior of Heterogeneous Materials, Higher Education Press and Springer, Beijing, pp. 755 (2008).Google Scholar
11. Wang, H., Zhao, X. J. and Wang, J. S., “Interaction analysis of multiple coated fibers in cement composites by special n-sided interphase/fiber elements,” Composites Science and Technology, 118, pp. 117126 (2015).Google Scholar
12. Wang, H., Qin, Q. H. and Xiao, Y., “Special n-sided Voronoi fiber/matrix elements for clustering thermal effect in natural-hemp-fiber-filled cement composites,” International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 92, pp. 228235 (2016).Google Scholar
13. Qin, Q. H. and Wang, H., “Special elements for composites containing hexagonal and circular fibers,” International Journal of Computational Methods, 12, 1540012 (2015).Google Scholar
14. Dong, C. Y., “Effective elastic properties of doubly periodic array of inclusions of various shapes by the boundary element method,” International Journal of Solids and Structures, 43, pp. 79197938 (2006).Google Scholar
15. Liu, K. C. and Ghoshal, A., “Validity of random microstructures simulation in fiber-reinforced composite materials,” Composites Part B: Engineering, 57, pp. 5670 (2014).Google Scholar
16. Yu, Y., Zhang, B., Tang, Z. and Qi, G., “Stress transfer analysis of unidirectional composites with randomly distributed fibers using finite element method,” Composites Part B: Engineering, 69, pp. 278285 (2015).Google Scholar
17. Chen, Y. Z. and Lee, K. Y., “Two-dimensional elastic analysis of doubly periodic circular holes in infinite plane,” KSME International Journal, 16, pp. 655665 (2002).Google Scholar
18. Dong, C. Y. and Lee, K. Y., “Numerical analysis of doubly periodic array of cracks/rigid-line inclusions in an infinite isotropic medium using the boundary integral equation method,” International Journal of Fracture, 133, pp. 389405 (2005).Google Scholar
19. Lekhnitskii, S. G., Theory of Elasticity of an Anisotropic Body, Mir Publishers, Moscow, pp. 1578 (1981).Google Scholar
20. Kaw, A. K., Mechanics of Composite Materials, 2nd Edition, CRC Press, Boca Raton, pp. 61136 (2005).Google Scholar
21. Zienkiewicz, O. C., Taylor, R. L. and Zhu, J. Z., The Finite Element Method: Its Basis and Fundamentals, 6th Edition, McGraw-Hill, London, pp. 187229 (2005).Google Scholar
22. Qin, Q. H. and Wang, H., Matlab and C Programming for Trefftz Finite Element Methods, CRC Press, Boca Raton, pp. 187243 (2009).Google Scholar
23. Qin, Q.H., “Solving anti-plane problems of piezoelectric materials by the Trefftz finite element approach,” Computational Mechanics, 31, pp. 461468 (2003).Google Scholar
24. Qin, Q.H. and Mai, Y.W., “BEM for crack-hole problems in thermopiezoelectric materials,” Engineering Fracture Mechanics, 69, pp. 577588 (2002).Google Scholar
25. Wongsto, A. and Li, S., “Micromechanical FE analysis of UD fibre-reinforced composites with fibres distributed at random over the transverse cross-section,” Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing, 36, pp. 12461266 (2005).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
26. Wang, Z. Q., Wang, X. Q., Zhang, J. F., Liang, W. Y. and Zhou, L. M., “Automatic generation of random distribution of fibers in long-fiber-reinforced composites and mesomechanical simulation,” Materials & Design, 32, pp. 885891 (2011).Google Scholar
27. Melro, A., Camanho, P. and Pinho, S., “Generation of random distribution of fibres in long-fibre reinforced composites,” Composites Science and Technology, 68, pp. 20922102 (2008).Google Scholar