Research on failure criterion of composite based on unified macro- and micro-mechanical model

A new unified macro- and micro-mechanics failure analysis method for composite structures was developed in order to take the effects of composite micro structure into consideration. In this method, the macro stress distribution of composite structure was calculated by commercial finite element analysis software. According to the macro stress distribution, the damage point was searched and the micro-stress distribution was calculated by reformulated finite-volume direct averaging micromechanics (FVDAM), which was a multi-scale finite element method for composite. The micro structure failure modes were estimated with the failure strength of constituents. A unidirectional composite plate with a circular hole in the center under two kinds of loads was analyzed with the traditional macro-mechanical failure analysis method and the unified macro- and micro-mechanics failure analysis method. The results obtained by the two methods are consistent, which show this new method’s accuracy and efficiency.