The matrix phase of fiber-reinforced polymer-matrix composites typically exhibitsnonlinear viscoelastic/viscoplastic behavior with damage evolution. For the structuralsafety evaluation, these polymer characteristics should be appropriately modeled topredict crack initiation on the fiber-diameter scale accurately. In this study, the matrixmodeling effect on multiscale prediction of nonlinear response and crack initiationwas investigated using a multiscale approach that consists of two finite-elementanalysis on different length scale. On the macroscopic scale, laminate-scale finiteelementanalysis assuming to be a homogeneous orthotropic lamina was conducted toobtain strain histories at failure-expected points. On the microscopic scale, periodicunit-cell (PUC) analysis considering heterogeneous material structure was performedto predict crack initiation in the matrix phase of composite laminates, based on strainhistories obtained from a macroscopic laminate analysis. Two constitutive models andfour sets of failure criteria were applied to the matrix phase of the unit cell for PUCanalysis, and compared with each other to evaluate important factors in multiscaleprediction of polymer-matrix composites.
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