Homogenization Based 3D Continuum Damage Mechanics Model for Composites Undergoing Microstructural Debonding

This paper develops a microscopic homogenization based continuum damage mechanics (HCDM) model framework for fiber reinforced composites undergoing interfacial debonding. It is an advancement over the 2D HCDM model developed by Raghavan and Ghosh (2005, “A Continuum Damage Mechanics Model for Unidirectional Composites Undergoing Interfacial Debonding,” Mech. Mater., 37(9), pp. 955–979), which does not yield accurate results for nonproportional loading histories. The present paper overcomes this shortcoming through the introduction of a principal damage coordinate system (PDCS) in the HCDM representation, which evolves with loading history. The material behavior is represented as a continuum constitutive law involving a fourth order orthotropic tensor with stiffness characterized as a macroscopic internal variable. The current work also extends the model of Raghavan and Ghosh to incorporate damage in 3D composites through functional forms of the fourth order damage tensor in terms of macroscopic strain components. The model is calibrated by homogenizing the micromechanical response of the representative volume element (RVE) for a few strain histories. This parametric representation can significantly enhance the computational efficiency of the model by avoiding the cumbersome strain space interpolations. The proposed model is validated by comparing the CDM results with homogenized micromechanical response of single and multiple fiber RVEs subjected to arbitrary loading history.