A novel approach to impose periodic boundary condition on braided composite RVE model based on RPIM

Periodic boundary condition for the representative volume element (RVE) model of the 3D braided composite is required to predict the braided composite properties in the framework of mean field homogenization. Meanwhile, generating periodic mesh is quite challenging due to complicated mesoscopic features for 3D braided composites. This paper presents a novel approach for the 3D braided composite RVE model by introducing radial point interpolation method (RPIM) to impose periodic boundary condition either on periodic or non-periodic mesh. Applied to a homogeneous and isotropic block and a 3D four-directional braided RVE model, it is demonstrated that the novel method is accurate for predicting FE results involving stress/strain values under 6 kinds of monotonic loading conditions and elastic constants for the braided composites.