Multiscale Modeling of Damage in Composite Materials

Abstract

Composite materials, and heterogeneous bodies in general, develop internal damage under imposed thermomechanical loading that can evolve to critical states of failure by a complex set of mechanisms. A hierarchical multiscale modeling approach to treat this behavior is generally not adequate. Instead, a synergistic approach is proposed that combines a continuum framework for macroscopic constitutive response and judiciously selected micro-level analyses of governing local failure mechanisms. Explicit characterization of physically observed features of micro-level failure is done by second order tensors that enter in the macro-level framework as internal variables. The approach is illustrated on damage of composite laminates made by stacking unidirectional fiber-reinforced layers.