Variational asymptotic homogenization of temperature-dependent heterogeneous materials under finite temperature changes

The variational asymptotic method is used to construct a thermomechanical model for homogenizing heterogeneous materials made of temperature-dependent constituents subject to finite temperature changes with the restriction that the strain is small. First, we presented the derivation for a Helmholtz free energy suitable for finite temperature changes using basic thermodynamics concepts. Then we used this energy to construct a thermomechanical micromechanics model, extending our previous work which was restricted to small temperature changes. The new model is implemented in the computer code VAMUCH using the finite element method for the purpose of handling real heterogeneous materials with arbitrary periodic microstructures. A few examples including binary composites, fiber reinforced composites, and particle reinforced composites are used to demonstrate the application of this model and the errors introduced by assuming small temperature changes when they are not necessarily small.