Multi-scale Modeling of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Magnesium Laminates (Cf/AZ91D) for Young's Modulus Prediction

Multi-scale models for carbon fiber reinforced magnesium laminate were established according to the characteristics of its realistic microstructure, including the crosswise and lengthwise unit cell model in microscale and structural unit cell model in mesoscale. The macro mechanical property Young's modulus was predicted according to the mesoscale model. The required properties for mesoscale model during simulation were obtained from microscale simulation. The Young's modulus for C-f/AZ91D laminates in different layup modes was predicted by multi-scale modeling technique and verified by corresponding experiments. The results show that multi-scale models can be used to predict the Young's modulus of laminate composites in different layup modes, and they show the same trend as but larger values than the experimental results. It is caused by the assumption of no degradation for matrix alloy and fiber during fabrication and perfect interface bonding. The multi-scale modeling technique proposed in this paper is meaningful for the laminate composite design.