Representative elementary volume

About: Representative elementary volume is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 4105 publications have been published within this topic receiving 86863 citations.

Computational homogenization of tensile deformation behaviors of a third generation Al-Li alloy 2060-T8 using crystal plasticity finite element method

Abstract: A computational homogenization procedure based on the crystal plasticity model was proposed herein to predict the tensile deformation behavior and investigate the anisotropic response of a novel third generation Al-Li alloy (AA2060-T8) at room temperature and different deformation conditions. To elucidate the in-grain deformation features, a representative volume element was constructed to reveal the microstructure of the real AA2060-T8 (polycrystalline material) in which each grain was discretized by many finite elements. Afterward, numerical results were assigned to each grain to explore the pre-texture formed by previous thermomechanical processes. A dislocation density-based crystal plasticity model was developed to infer the constitutive equation of each grain and simulate the plastic deformation of AA2060-T8 alloy. The material parameters used in the dislocation density-based crystal plasticity model were calibrated against a tensile stress-strain curve deformed at 30° with respect to rolling direction. The results obtained from the proposed computational homogenization method are in line with those obtained from experimentation. This indicates that the proposed computational homogenization method can definitely predict the tensile deformation behavior and capture the anisotropic responses of AA2060-T8 (polycrystalline materials) originating from deformation induced texture as well as the initially anisotropic texture.

A double inclusion model for multiphase piezoelectric composites

Abstract: A novel active structural fiber (ASF; Lin and Sodano 2008 Compos. Sci. Technol. 68 1911–8) was developed that can be embedded in a composite material in order to perform sensing and actuation, in addition to providing load bearing functionality. In order to fully understand the electroelastic properties of the material, this paper will introduce a three-dimensional micromechanics model for estimating the effective electroelastic properties of the multifunctional composites with different design parameters. The three-dimensional model is formulated by extending the double inclusion model to multiphase composites with piezoelectric constituents. The double inclusion model has been chosen for the ASF studied here because it is designed to model composites reinforced by inclusions with multilayer coatings. The accuracy of our extended double inclusion model will be evaluated through a three-dimensional finite element analysis of a representative volume element of the ASF composite. The results will demonstrate that the micromechanics model developed here can very accurately predict the electroelastic properties of the multifunctional composites.