Micromechanical Modeling of Composites with Mechanical Interface - Part I: Unit Cell Model Development and Manufacturing Process Effects

Micromechanical modeling has been demonstrated to be a powerful tool to predict macroscopic constitutive response especially for those materials having periodic microstructure. In the past decades, this methodology has been widely applied to composites often neglecting the role of stress/strain histories due to manufacturing. In this first paper, looking at those classes of composite materials having a mechanical interface, the need and the importance of modeling the matrix–reinforcement assembly process is analyzed in details. Even though some pioneering works have been done in this area in the late 1980s, today the possibility to employ advanced contact algorithms and to incorporate material temperature dependency as well as damage open new possibilities for obtaining reliable, accurate and scalable solutions not only limited to the elastic range. Here, an extensive analysis of the problems related to the development of the unit cell model for MMC is presented and used to predict the macroscopic response of SiC/Ti-15-3 unidirectional composite laminates.