Strategy for an efficient material non-linear multiscale analysis

Abstract

As the internal microstructure of composite materials becomes more complex, multi-scale methods are gaining strength. These allow obtaining the material performance from the analysis of a representative volume element. The use of multiscale procedures is also encouraged by the increase of computational capacity. However, despite of this increase, performing a non-linear multiscale analysis of a real structure is still chimeric due to its computational cost. This work presents a strategy to conduct non-linear multiscale analysis in an efficient way. It is based in the definition of a threshold function, which is developed specifically for each micro-model using its specific strain field. The procedure allows a large reduction of the computational cost, facilitating its use by researchers and engineers without large computational means. The validity of the proposed strategy is shown with the analysis of a pultruded cantilever beam. The results obtained prove the efficiency of the method.