Rate dependent plastic deformation analysis of creeping short fiber composites using the virtual fiber method in the non-reinforced regions

•Study on creeping short fiber composites is analytically done under axial tensile stress.•Stress behaviors are predicted using virtual fiber method at non-reinforced regions.•Nonlinear behavior of related parameters is arising from high shear stress values.•Short fiber composites with large non-reinforced regions are proper for design purposes locally.•High values of tensile axial stress are unfavorable for designing creeping composite.

In this research paper, analysis of time-dependent plastic deformation in non-reinforced regions of creeping short fiber composites is carried out under axial tensile stress using the virtual fiber method. As an important application of the present method, shuttles and spaceships, turbine blades and discs are usually subjected to the creep effects. So, analysis of the creep phenomenon is necessary and important in various industries. The nature of the stress distributions is investigated using the equilibrium and constitutive equations, compatibility relations, and incompressibility condition with various boundary conditions, and geometric relations. Analytical and finite element methods are used to predict the stress distributions in the steady state creep of the short fiber composites. Also, the creep analysis (nodal solution) is done by FEM to predict the possible creep rupture, in which, debonding at the interface of the matrix and fiber may happen due to the maximum tensile axial stress values at the interface. In addition to similarities of the present method and experimental results [34], a good agreement of the stress distributions between the present analytical solutions and the FEM results is found. As a result, the short fiber composites with large non-reinforced regions in the axial direction are proper because it increases the factor of safety for design.