Title: Continuum and Multiscale Modeling of Rubber Toughened Glassy Polymers at Finite Strains
Abstract: Over recent years, the modeling of heterogenous multi-phase materials has been a topic of extensive research by the scientific community. Among other approaches, computational homogenizationbased multiscale modeling has emerged as an effective way to relate the macroscopic behaviour of materials with their underlying heterogeneous microstructure by continuous interchange of information between scales. Under the key assumption of the principle of separation of scales, the hierarchically coupled multi-scale finite element method is based on the nested solution of two coupled boundary value problems: (i) at the macroscale, where the material’s macroscopic response is sought, and (ii) at the microscale, where computations are conducted over representative volume elements in order to account for microstructural phenomena in the macroscopic response, through an homogenization procedure. A considerable effort has been made by the scientific community to develop constitutive models that are able to accurately describe the deformation behaviour of polymeric based materials. Concerning their fracture thoughness, it is well known that glassy polymers show brittle behaviour, particulary under specific conditions such as low temperatures and high strain rates. One important and well-known technique to improve their fracture toughness is termed rubber toughnening, which consists in dispersing rubbery particles in the polymeric matrix in order to hinder the propagation of microfractures. Associated with these rubbery particles is the phenomenon of internal cavitation, meaning that they will behave as voids during the deformation of the rubber toughened polymer. In the present contribution, a continuum constitutive model is developed in order to predict the behaviour of porous polymeric materials. This model fully couples the finite strain elastoviscoplastic constitutive model proposed by Mirkhalaf et al. [1] with the yield surface of the wellknown micromechanical void growth model proposed by Gurson [2]. A first order homogenizationbased multiscale model [3] is then employed to critically assess the predictive ability of the developed continuum model, through several numerical comparisons between the continuum approach and the homogenized response of a voided representative volume element.
Publication Year: 2019
Publication Date: 2019-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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