Micromechanical modeling for prediction of the creep behavior of fibrous composite materials

A micro-mechanical model based on the representative volume element (RVE) is presented to study the time-dependent and creep behavior of fibrous composite material. To this aim a finite element model is presented for analysis of creep behavior of material in multi-axial creep are presented. The generalized plane strain condition is employed to model the behavior of the RVE in axial and transverse normal loading. The governing equations of the problem in the RVE are discretized using the presented finite element method and the stiffness and force matrixes are presented. Appropriate boundary conditions are implied to the RVE in order to consider the transverse and axial loading conditions including creep behavior. The Euler explicit method is employed to solve the discretized equations in the time domain. The distribution of micro-stresses and the effect of creep in re-distribution of the stresses are studied. The steady state creep behavior of composite in macro-mechanical scale is investigated by analysis of the micromechanical behavior of the RVE. The macro-mechanical creep behavior of metal matrix composite in axial and transverse loading are predicted from the presented micromechanical model.