Homogenisation of composite materials’ properties in linear thermoelasticity

Abstract

The detailed numerical modelling of the thermomechanical behaviour of structural components built from composite materials requires, in general, the previous knowledge of their macroscopic properties. With analytical models it is possible to estimate effective properties of materials, as well their upper and lower bounds. On the other hand, numerical methods can also be used in this task, being the asymptotic expansion homogenisation method one of the most relevant ones. The use of homogenisation methodologies may lead to significant computational benefits. This technique permits the replacement of a heterogeneous medium by an equivalent homogeneous medium, leading to macrostructural behaviour models based on the information available from microstructural level. In this work, numerical asymptotic expansion homogenisation procedures are used to obtain the effective values of thermomechanical properties of composite materials. These values are compared with the ones obtained with analytical models and with experimental values obtained from bibliography.