ORCID
- Summerscales, John: 0000-0002-3557-0404
Abstract
The aim of the current work was to illustrate the effect of the fibre area correction factor on the results of modelling natural fibre-reinforced composites. A mesoscopic approach is adopted to represent the stochastic heterogeneity of the composite, i.e. a meso-structural numerical model was prototyped using the finite element method including quasi-unidirectional discrete fibre elements embedded in a matrix. The model was verified by the experimental results from previous work on jute fibres but is extendable to every natural fibre with cross-sectional non-uniformity. A correction factor was suggested to fine-tune both the analytical and numerical models. Moreover, a model updating technique for considering the size-effect of fibres is introduced and its implementation was automated by means of FORTRAN subroutines and Python scripts. It was shown that correcting and updating the fibre strength is critical to obtain accurate macroscopic response of the composite when discrete modelling of fibres is intended. Based on the current study, it is found that consideration of the effect of flaws on the strength of natural fibres and inclusion of the fibre area correction factor are crucial to obtain realistic results.
DOI
10.1177/0021998320912822
Publication Date
2020-09-01
Publication Title
Journal of Composite Materials
Volume
54
Issue
23
ISSN
0021-9983
Embargo Period
2020-07-03
Organisational Unit
School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
First Page
3275
Last Page
3286
Recommended Citation
Javanbakht, Z., Hall, W., Virk, A., Summerscales, J., & Öchsner, A. (2020) 'Finite element analysis of natural fiber composites using a self-updating model', Journal of Composite Materials, 54(23), pp. 3275-3286. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/0021998320912822
