D. H. Pahr¹, H.J. Böhm¹

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.34, No.2, pp. 117-136, 2008, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2008.034.117

Abstract The combination of heterogeneous volume elements and numerical analysis schemes such as the Finite Element method provides a powerful and well proven tool for studying the mechanical behavior of composite materials. Periodicity boundary conditions (PBC), homogeneous displacement boundary conditions (KUBC) and homogeneous traction boundary conditions (SUBC) have been widely used in such studies. Recently Pahr and Zysset (2008) proposed a special set of mixed uniform boundary conditions (MUBC) for evaluating the macroscopic elasticity tensor of human trabecular bone. These boundary conditions are not restricted to periodic phase geometries, but were found to give the same predictions as PBC for the… More >

H. T. Wang¹, Z. H. Yao²

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.29, No.1, pp. 1-14, 2008, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2008.029.001

Abstract Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) may provide ultimate enhancement in stiffness and strength for composite materials. This paper presents a rigid-fiber-based boundary integral equation formulation for the numerical simulation of debonding process and the corresponding strength of CNT reinforced composites. The CNT/matrix interfaces are assumed to fail when the interfacial shear force reaches a prescribed threshold, and the CNTs and matrix are considered to be detached in the failed areas. The matrix with one or several tens of originally well-bonded CNTs is subjected to an incremental tensile load and the effective stress-strain relations are readily obtained by the introduction of CNT/matrix debonding… More >

Thi D. Dang¹, Bhavani V. Sankar²

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.26, No.3, pp. 169-188, 2008, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2008.026.169

Abstract In this paper the meshless local Petrov-Galerkin (MLPG) method is used in the micromechanical analysis of a unidirectional fiber composite. The methods have been extended to include shear loadings, thus permitting a more complete micromechanical analysis of the composite subjected to combined loading states. The MLPG formulation is presented for the analysis of the representative volume element (RVE) of the periodic composite containing material discontinuities. Periodic boundary conditions are imposed between opposite faces of the RVE. The treatment of periodic boundary conditions in the MLPG method is handled by using the multipoint constraint technique. Examples are presented to illustrate the… More >

Weixue Tian¹, Ronggui Yang²

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.24, No.2&3, pp. 123-142, 2008, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2008.024.123

Abstract In this paper, we investigated the effective thermal conductivity of three dimensional nanocomposites composed of randomly distributed binary nanoparticles with large differences (contrast ratio) in their intrinsic (bulk) thermal conductivity. When random composites are made from particles with very different thermal conductivity (large contrast ratio), a continuous phase of high thermal conductivity constituent is formed when its volumetric concentration reaches beyond the percolation threshold. Such a continuous phase of material can provide a potentially low resistance pathway for thermal transport in random composites. The percolation theory predicts the thermal conductivity of the random composites to increase according to a scaling… More >

F.C. Araújo¹, L.J. Gray²

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.24, No.2&3, pp. 103-122, 2008, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2008.024.103

Abstract In recent years, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been widely employed to build advanced composites. In this work, a Boundary Element Method (BEM) is applied to 3D representative volume elements (RVEs) to estimate mechanical properties of CNT-based composites. To model the thin-walled nanotubes, special integration procedures for calculating nearly-strongly-singular integrals have been developed. The generic BE substructuring algorithm allows modeling complex CNT-reinforced polymers, containing any number of nanotubes of any shape (straight or curved). The subregion-by-subregion strategy, based on Krylov solvers, makes the independent generation, assembly, and storage of the many parts of the complete BE model possible. Thus, significant memory… More >

B. Yang^1,2, S.-C. Wong³, S. Qu³

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.24, No.2&3, pp. 81-94, 2008, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2008.024.081

Abstract In the modeling of overall property of composites, the effect of particle interaction has been either numerically taken into account within a (representative) volume element of a small number of particles or neglected/ignored in order for efficient solution to a large system of particles. In this study, we apply the point-defect Green's function (GF) to take into account the effect of particle interaction. It is applicable to small volume fractions of particles (within 10 %). The high efficiency of the method enables a simulation of a large system of particles with generally elastic anisotropy, arbitrary shape and composition, and arbitrary… More >

S. Namilae¹, U. Ch,ra², A Srinivasan³, N. Ch,ra⁴

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.22, No.3, pp. 189-202, 2007, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2007.022.189

Abstract Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations play an important predictive role in understanding the behavior of nanoscale systems. In this paper, parallel MD simulations are used to understand the mechanical behavior of interfaces in CNT based composites. We present an algorithm for parallel implementation of MD simulations of carbon nanotube (CNT) based systems using reactive bond order potentials. We then use that algorithm to model the CNT-polymer interfaces with various levels of interaction as (a) described only by long range Van Der Waals interactions (b) chemically bonded with fixed matrix and (c) chemically bonded with matrix explicitly modeled. It is shown that… More >

S. Anup¹, S. M. Sivakumar², G. K. Suraishkumar³

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.18, No.2, pp. 145-154, 2007, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2007.018.145

Abstract Bone is a hierarchical bio-composite, and has a staggered arrangement of soft protein molecules interspaced with hard mineral platelets at the fine ultrastructure level. The investigation into reasons for high fracture toughness of bio-composites such as bone requires consideration of properties at the different levels of hierarchy. In this work, the analysis is done at the continuum level, but the properties used are appropriate to that of the level considered. In this way, the properties at the fine ultrastructure level of bone is considered in the stress distribution analysis of a platelet adjacent to the broken platelet. Results show the… More >

D.S. Liu^1,2 , C.Y. Chen² , D.Y. Chiou³

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.9, No.2, pp. 179-192, 2005, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2005.009.179

Abstract A three-dimensional heterogeneous infinite element method (HIEM) for modeling inclusions with interphases in composite materials is presented. This special element is formulated based on the conventional finite element method (FEM) using the similarity stiffness property and matrix condensation operations. An HIE-FE coupling scheme is also developed and implemented using the commercial software ABAQUS to conduct the elastostatic analysis. The proposed approach was validated first to study heterogeneous material containing one spherical inclusion. The displacement and stress variations around the inclusion vicinity are verified against conventional FEM. The proposed approach was next applied to analyze the effective modulus of single-particle and… More >

Qing-Sheng Yang^1,2, Wilfried Becker³

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.6, No.4, pp. 319-332, 2004, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2004.006.319

Abstract The present paper focuses on the comparative investigation of different homogenization methods for fiber composites, void solids and rigid inclusion media. The effective properties of multi-phase media are calculated by three methods, i.e. direct average method of stress and strain, direct average method of strain energy and two-scale expansion method. A comprehensive comparison, in principle and numerically, of these methods is emphasized. It is obvious that the two direct average methods are identical in principle and therefore they give the same numerical results. It is shown that the two-scale expansion method is the same as the direct average concept of… More >