Prediction of elastic characteristics of fiber-reinforced plastic in bending: multi-scale finite element modeling and experiment

The paper presents the results of multi-scale modeling of fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP) on woven fiberglass and hot curing epoxy resin. Simulation using finite element homogenization of a representative volumetric element (RVE) combined with structural-phenomenological modeling was carried out to predict the flexural modulus of FRP. Modeling was carried out first at the RVE scale in the Material Designer CAE module of the ANSYS package, then these results were used in the structural-phenomenological models of samples in the ANSYS APDL module. To correctly set the initial data, using optical microscopes, the mesostructure of the samples was investigated and its averaged geometric parameters were determined. The obtained results of multi-scale modeling using a technique combining finite element homogenization with a structural-phenomenological multilayer model showed good agreement with the experiment, using the example of FRP samples based on EZ-200 fiberglass and a hot-curing epoxy binder. The difference between the predicted and experimental deformations of the samples was from 1.5 to 5%. In the future, it seems promising to use this technique for predicting the characteristics of hybrid composites, for example, based on a filled matrix and hybrid (combined) reinforcement. A hybrid reinforcement can be considered, for example, alternating layers of carbon and fiberglass, or fiberglass and metal mesh, etc.