Micro-mechanical approach and algorithm for the study of damage appearance in elastomer composites

This paper aims with the development of a numerical non-incremental algorithm well suited for the homogenization of nonlinearly elastic composites. On the one hand it allows to obtain the macroscopic behavior of such composites, without any numerical overcosts and on the other hand to estimate with a good accuracy the local forces sustained by the composite constituents. This latter property is very helpful in a further step when dealing with the simulation of damage evolution in structures of industrial relevance. In order to illustrate these homogenization and fast solution algorithm, they are both applied to the case of unidirectional composites. Thanks to the use of the finite element technique, the homogenized responses corresponding to some macroscopic loadings are first computed. Next, the analysis of three kinds of damage, which may be expected in such composites, is carried out. Finally the numerical performances of the proposed algorithm are presented and compared to these induced by an incremental algorithm. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.