Prediction of effective thermal conductivities of woven fabric composites using unit cells at multiple length scales
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Shuguang Li Department of Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, United Kingdom
Yongchang Wang School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering, University of Manchester, Manchester M60 1QD, United Kingdom (Received 1 July 2010; accepted 7 September 2010)
A procedure for predicting the in-plane and out-of-plane thermal conductivities of woven fabric composites through a combined approach of the representative volume element method and heat transfer analyses via finite element is presented. The representative volume element method was implemented using two unit cells established at different length scales with periodic boundary conditions. The procedure was exemplified on a plain weave glass fabric reinforced epoxy resin matrix composite. Sensitivity studies were conducted to quantify the influence of fiber volume fraction and thermal conductivity of the constituent phases on the effective thermal conductivities of the composite. The procedure, which can be implemented into commercial finite element codes, is an efficient tool for the design of woven fabric composites.
I. INTRODUCTION
Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] DOI: 10.1557/jmr.2010.51
anisotropic nature, it is difficult to fully predict the mechanical and thermal characteristics of these materials from the results of mechanical and thermal tests. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct reliable numerical simulations to evaluate their mechanical and thermal behavior. The numerical simulations are usually carried out via the use of the finite element method. The analytical models used to represent these composites are either homogenous, or heterogeneous in nature. The use of homogenous models is limited to the macroscopic evaluation of the properties of composites. Heterogeneous models, which include two-dimensional (2D)2 and three-dimensional (3D) models,3 are dedicated to the microscopic evaluation of their properties. A 2D model with generalized plane strain condition is acceptable when a composite is a unidirectional (UD) fiber reinforced composite. However, these simplified conditions are not correct when we deal with structures such as woven fabric composites. For such structures, a 3D modeling becomes necessary. The 3D micromechanical finite element analyses or heat transfer analyses of woven fabric composites are generally used to obtain the effective engineering properties such as effective moduli, Poisson’s ratios, thermal expansion coefficients,4 or thermal conductivities, which are needed for macrolevel analyses of composite structures. Prediction of composite effective properties based on the constituent material properties and microarchitecture of the reinforcement has been of interest for many years.
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Ó Materials Research Society 2011
Woven fabric composites are widely used as structural components in aerospace, automobile, and boat industries due to their high specific stiffness and high specific strength as well as their impr
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