An approach to predict the mechanical properties of CFRP based on cross-scale simulation

The excellent mechanical properties of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics (CFRP) have great influence on the deformation and failure of the components. The accurate prediction of the mechanical properties of CFRP is always a necessary but tough task, especially the transverse elastic modulus and shear modulus. This paper proposed an approach to predict the mechanical properties of CFRP based on cross-scale simulation. Firstly, the structural representative volume element (RVE) of unidirectional CFRP (UD-CFRP) is established in ABAQUS software at microscopic level considering periodic boundary conditions. The macroscopic mechanical properties of UD-CFRP are predicted by applying the different loading conditions for RVE in each direction. Secondly, based on the homogenization theory, the mesoscopic simplified RVE of multidirectional CFRP (MD-CFRP) is established according to the dimension of structural RVE. The mechanical properties of CFRP with the change of the angle and the different stacking sequence of UD-CFRP are also predicted through the mesoscopic simplified RVE. Finally, a series of experiments have been carried out, which showed that the results of the prediction approach and the experiments are in good agreements.