Random microstructure finite element method and its verification for effective properties of composite materials

The present study aims at developing a new method - Random Microstructure Finite Element Method (RMFEM) fro the effective properties of composite materials. In this method, a random microstructure model is used to simulate the microstructure of the real composite materials. The physical fields in such a random microstructure model under specified boundary and initial conditions are analyzed by finite element method. The effective properties of composite materials can be obtained from the analysis results. As verification, some effective properties of composite materials, such as elastic module, thermal expansion coefficient, thermal conductivity and elastoplastic properties, are investigated by random microstructure finite element method. The numerical results are given together with the experimental data. It is revealed that the random microstructure finite element method is a very valid method for the determination of the effective properties of composite materials.