A plugin has been developed for Abaqus/CAE that facilitates the setup, analysis, and post-processing of finite element representative volume element (FE-RVE) models. Such models permit detailed study of the behavior of small-scale material microstructures under the influence of far-field loading. The plugin provides a number of functionalities:
- Parameterized FE-RVE generation for certain geometries:
- Unidirectional continuous fiber reinforced composites with hexagonal fiber packing
- Body-centered and face-centered ellipsoids
- Body-centered lattices
- Users can also create their own custom FE-RVE models
- Automated imposition of different types of boundary conditions, with the ability to drive the FE-RVE using user-defined histories or with field history at a point from a larger-scale analysis.
- Periodic BCs (even if the mesh isn't periodic)
- Taylor BCs (RVE surface constrained to far-field gradient)
- Neumann BCs (far-field flux applied to RVE surface)
- Study of various RVE physics:
- Mechanical analysis of both continuum and shell-like microstructures
- Steady state heat transfer
- Steady state coupled temperature-displacement
- Homogenization
- Elastic stiffness
- Thermal Expansion
- Shell Section Stiffness (ABD matrix)
- Thermal Conductivity
- Fully coupled conductivity+stiffness (9x9 constitutive matrix)
- Density
- Specific Heat
- Post Processing
- Field averaging in the whole RVE and per-phase
- Histogram generation
Associated Content
An short demo showing homogenization of a textile unit cell model
Example Workflow
The following figure and description provide an example of a workflow that the Micromechanics plugin can facilitate.
In the first step, a fiber-matrix model is used to predict the transversely isotropic elastic response of a unidirectional composite material. This material response is then used for the tows in a textile unit cell model. This textile unit cell model is used to obtain the shell section behavior for a thin textile laminate. Note that this shell section stiffness is based directly on the response of the textile unit cell model with shell-like boundary conditions applied and does not come from laminated plate theory (which assumes that properties do not vary in the plane of the shell – an assumption which may be incongruous with thin textile laminates or honeycomb/lattice-core panels). This shell section stiffness can then be used to define a shell general section definition in an engineering structure.
The engineering structure can then be analyzed as normal. Once that analysis is complete, the shell deformation at some point of interest in the engineering structure can be used to drive the textile unit cell analysis. This permits the stresses in and behavior of the textile laminate to be examined in detail, permitting an analyst to predict whether any phenomena might occur such as interfacial failure between tows, matrix cracking in a tow, or plasticity in the neat matrix pocket which may not be accounted for in the material response used in the engineering analysis. Additionally, the strain history from a location in the tow can be used to drive a fiber-matrix unit cell, permitting more detailed analysis of the tow microstructure and prediction of phenomena within the tow such as matrix cracking, fiber failure, or plasticity, all based on the predicted response of the engineering structure.
Obtaining the Plugin
The plugin is currently being distributed thru the DS Knowledge Base as Q&A article QA00000046185. Customers with a support account will be able to download the plugin from that article. Academic customers (those with institutional email addresses from universities) without support accounts should send an email (from their institutional email address) to ross.mclendon@3ds.com to arrange access to the plugin.
The plugin should be extracted into an abaqus_plugins directory (for instance, \\\$HOME/abaqus_plugins). It can then be accessed from the Plug-ins menu in Abaqus/CAE. The plugin requires Abaqus/CAE 2016 or later. The zip folder containing the plugin also includes a PDF with documentation.
