Damage mechanics analysis of plain woven fabric composite micromechanical model for mesh-free simulations

Abstract

A mesh-free Galerkin approach for modeling damage in plain woven fabric composite is presented. The model is based on the continuum damage mechanics and is applied to both mosaic and smooth fabric idealizations of the plain woven composite. A mesh-free Galerkin method is formulated for the first time to include the continuum damage mechanics for micromechanics model of woven fabric composites. An incremental technique of applied displacement/strain is developed to obtain the relationship between the representative volume cell stresses and strains. Also presented for the first time is an analytical formulation for damage in the mosaic unit cell representation of the woven fabric composite. Several examples are presented to demonstrate the application of the proposed methods and comparisons are made between the newly developed analytical formulation and the proposed mesh-free method.