Computational Materials Science 44 (2009) 13511359

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Computational Materials Science

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/commatsci

Micromechanical modeling of damage and fracture of unidirectional ber reinforced composites: A review
Leon Mishnaevsky Jr. *, Povl Brndsted
Ris National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy, Technical University of Denmark, AFM-228, P.O. Box 49, Frederiksborgvej 399, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark

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An overview of methods of the mathematical modeling of deformation, damage and fracture in ber reinforced composites is presented. The models are classied into ve main groups: shear lag-based, analytical models, ber bundle model and its generalizations, fracture mechanics based and continuum damage mechanics based models and numerical continuum mechanical models. Advantages, limitations and perspectives of different approaches to the simulation of deformation, damage and fracture of ber reinforced composites are analyzed. 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Article history: Received 13 August 2008 Accepted 2 September 2008 Available online 17 October 2008 PACS: 62.20.M Keywords: Composites Modeling Damage Fracture

1. Introduction The high strength and damage resistance of ber reinforced composites are very important for a number of practical applications. In order to predict the strength and other properties of composites, a number of mathematical models of deformation, damage and failure of ber reinforced composites have been developed. The purpose of this work is to review different models of deformation, damage and failure of ber reinforced composites, and to compare their strong sides and areas of application. The damage mechanisms of ber reinforced composites (FRC) can be described as follows [1]. If a composite with metal or polymer matrix, reinforced by stiff bers, is subject to longitudinal tensile loading, the main part of the load is born by the bers, and they tend to fail rst. After weakest bers fail, the loading on remaining intact bers increases. That may cause the failure of other, rst of all, neighboring bers. The cracks in the bers cause higher stress concentration in the matrix, what can lead to the matrix cracking. However, if the ber/matrix interface is weak, the crack will extend and grow along the interface. In the case of ceramic and other brittle matrix composites, the crack is formed initially in the matrix. If intact bers are available behind the crack front and they are connecting the crack faces, the crack bridging mechanism is operative. In this case, the load is shared by the bridging bers and crack tip,

and the stress intensity factor on the crack tip is reduced. A higher amount of bringing bers leads to the lower stress intensity factor on the crack tip, and the resistance to crack growth increases with increasing the crack length (R-curve behavior) [2,3]. The extension of a crack, bridged by intact bers, leads to the debonding and pullout of bers that increase the fracture toughness of the material. Thus, the strength and fracture toughness of ber reinforced composites is determined by the interplay between the damage processes in different elements of the composite. 2. Fiber fracture, load transfer and interaction between ber breaks: analytical modeling The shear lag model, developed by Cox [4] is one of the most often used approaches in the analysis of strength and damage of ber reinforced composites. This model is often employed to analyze the load redistribution in ber reinforced composites, resulting from failure of one or several bers. This redistribution is described in the framework of various load sharing models. According to the global load sharing schema (GLS) (used for instance, in the ber bundle model by developed by Daniels [5]), the load, which was born by a broken ber, is equally re-distributed over all the remaining intact bers in the cross-section of the composite. As noted by Zhou and Wagner [6], the GLS model is applicable only to a loose ber bundle, with no matrix between the bers. In the case of bers which are bound together by the matrix, other models of the load sharing should be used.

* Corresponding author. E-mail address: leon.mishnaevsky@risoe.dk (L. Mishnaevsky). 0927-0256/$ - see front matter 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.commatsci.2008.09.004