Composites Don't Behave Like Single Materials, and Modelling Them Shouldn't Pretend Otherwise

A composite's macro level behavior is inseparable from what happens at its microstructure, in the matrix, the fibres, and how the two interact, which makes composites inherently multiscale by nature. Treat one as a single homogeneous material and you risk missing nonlinear or history dependent effects; try to model every fibre and matrix interaction in full detail instead, and the computational cost quickly becomes prohibitive. Multiscale modelling bridges that gap by linking micro and macro scales through dedicated techniques, keeping macro level predictions tied to what's actually happening in the microstructure.

Webinar Scope

This training introduces multiscale modelling of composites in Abaqus, centered on Mean Field Homogenization (MFH) and its FE based alternative. You'll see how information moves between micro and macro scales, how a composite's microstructure gets specified, and how both linear elastic and nonlinear short fibre reinforced composites are modelled. The Micromechanics plug in also gets covered, which automates Representative Volume Element (RVE) model creation and postprocessing.

Topics Covered

• Multiscale modelling fundamentals: bottom up and top-down scale communication

• MFH versus FE-RVE: weighing accuracy against computational cost

• Specifying composite microstructure: shape, volume fraction, aspect ratio, fibre orientation

• Linear elastic composites: Voigt, Reuss, Mori-Tanaka, and balanced formulations

• Multi-step homogenization for multi-inclusion or dispersed fibre composites

• Composites with thermal expansion

• Incremental MFH for nonlinear composites: plasticity, damage, and viscoelasticity

• How isotropization methods affect prediction accuracy

• Requesting output at micro and macro level

• Generating and postprocessing RVEs with the Micromechanics plug in

• Deep Material Network (DMN): a reduced order, machine learning based approach for multiscale material modeling

Who Should Attend?

• Simulation engineers modelling composite or fibre reinforced materials

• Analysts working with short fibre reinforced or multi-inclusion composites

• Engineers looking to predict macro behavior from microstructure data, or vice versa

• Anyone evaluating MFH as an alternative to full FE-RVE modelling

Prerequisite

• 12Simulate Abaqus customer