Two-Way Global-Local Coupled Failure Modeling with Rx-FEM

Abstract

Fiber-reinforced composites are widely used in aerospace structures because of their high specific strength. However, the failure prediction in these heterogeneous engineered materials presents significant challenges due to the multiscale nature and interaction of the damage modes. The computational cost increases dramatically moving from coupon to element to subcomponent and higher levels of the building block ladder. Fine meshes and high-fidelity numerical models are necessary in order to achieve local accuracy but at the same time make the computations prohibitively expensive. The present work focuses on a practical approach, two-way global-local tight coupling, to allow users to setup the modeling easily and reduce the computational cost. This method can capture the global failure. Penalty connection method is used for tight coupling of the local and global regions. Multiple discrete damage modes are allowed in the local region. Two numerical examples are provided to illustrate that the two-way global-local tight coupling can effectively predict the local damage and the global response.