A THERMO-ELASTO-VISCOPLASTIC MODEL FOR COMPOSITE MATERIALS AND ITS FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS

A constitutive model on oorthotropic thermo-elasto-viscoplasticity for fiber-reinforced composite materials Is illustrated, and their thermomechanical responses are predicted with the fully-coupled finite element formulation. The unmixing-mixing scheme can be adopted with the multipartite matrix method as the constitutive model. Basic assumptions based upon the composite micromechanics are postulated, and the strain components of thermal expansion due to temperature change are included In the formulation. Also. more than two sets of mechanical variables, which represent the deformation states of multipartite matrix can be introduced arbitrarily. In particular, the unmixing-mixing scheme can be used with any well-known isotropic viscoplastic theory of the matrix material. The scheme unnecessitates the complex processes for developing an orthotropic viscoplastic theory. The governing equations based on fully-coupled thermomechanics are derived with constitutive arrangement by the unmixing-mixing concept. By considering some auxiliary conditions, the Initial-boundary value problem Is completely set up. As a tool of numerical analyses, the finite element method Is used with isoparametric Interpolation fer the displacement and the temperature fields. The equation of mutton and the energy conservation equation are spatially discretized, and then the time marching techniques such as the Newmark method and the Crank-Nicolson technique are applied. To solve the ultimate nonlinear simultaneous equations, a successive iteration algorithm is constructed with subincrementing technique. As a numerical study, a series of analyses are performed with the main focus on the thermomechanical coupling effect in composite materials. The progress of viscoplastic deformation, the stress-strain relation, and the temperature History are careful1y examined when composite laminates are subjected to repeated cyclic loading.