Verification of numerical homogenization approach in predicting thermal conductivities of fiber reinforced composites with voids and randomly distributed fibers

摘要

The aim of this paper is to establish the homogenization approach that eliminates the difficulties encountered by the conventional numerical methods in analyzing thermal behavior of the multi-material component systems with minimum computational resources. Analysis of problems with intricacies or larger domains can be made simpler through finite element assisted homogenization approach. In this paper, applicability of homogenization approach is verified by considering two cases (ⅰ) composite with voids and (ⅱ) composite with fibers distributed randomly. Fiber randomness case is investigated by Digital Image-Based (DIB) modeling technique in association with MATLAB'S image processing module. Also effect of transverse fiber crack on the effective thermal conductivity of the composite is studied. Results of homogenization approach compared with micro-mechanics approach yielded maximum percentage deviation of 1.72% for voids case and 1.49% for fiber randomness case.