A semi-concurrent multiscale approach for modeling damage in nanocomposites

Abstract

The paper presents an effective implementation of a semi-concurrent multiscale method in the commercial finite element software package ABAQUS. The method is applied to the pre-localized damage initiation and propagation in the fully exfoliated clay/epoxy nanocomposite. The obtained results of the proposed method is also compared with the hierarchical multiscale approach. This method can be easily used to get a better understanding of damage mechanism in the nanocomposite materials in order to improve the constitutive models and to support the future design of those materials.

Keywords

Semi-concurrent multiscale methods, Nanocomposites, Damage mechanics, Finite element analysis (FEA)