An RVE-based micromechanical analysis of fiber-reinforced composites considering fiber size dependency

An RVE-based micromechanical elastic damage model considering fiber size dependency is presented to predict the effective elastic moduli and interfacial damage evolution in fiber-reinforced composites. To assess the validity of the present model, the predictions based on the proposed micromechanical elastic model are compared with Hashin’s theoretical bounds [Hashin Z. Analysis of properties of fiber composites with anisotropic constituents. J Appl Mech: Trans ASME 1979;46:543–50]. The proposed micromechanical elastic damage model is then exercised under uniaxial loading conditions to show the overall elastic damage behavior of the proposed micromechanical framework and to illustrate fiber size effect on the behavior of the composites. Moreover, comparisons between the present prediction and experimental data are made to further illustrate the capability of the proposed micromechanical framework for predicting the elastic damage behavior of fiber-reinforced composites.