Stochastic Nonlinear Analysis of Composites by First-Order Perturbation Based Homogenization Method

Abstract

With the broaden applications of fibrous composites in engineering fields, a variety of numerical methods for predicting their mechanical properties and behaviours are presented. In this paper, a stochastic homogenization method based on the first-order perturbation technique with the help of finite element method is developed to calculate not only macroscopic properties but also microscopic strain of composite materials under given macroscopic strain condition considering uncertainties in many physical parameters of constituent materials. Afterward, a stochastic prediction algorithm of damage propagation was introduced. In this nonlinear analysis, the characteristic displacements of the model are updated when damage occurs. For demonstration, a numerical example was carried out using fibre/matrix interphase composite model. The results show that the developed method is useful to predict the stochastic damage propagation of composite materials.