Finite Element Modelling for Stress Identification in Microscale In-Situ Computed Tomography Tensile Specimens
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Observing and characterising microscale tensile damage development in fibre-reinforced composites is crucial to validate and improve micro- and mesomechanical models. However, such experiments are challenging and require small material volumes to be interrogated to yield high-resolution images. Typically, this requires small double-edge notched specimens with a significant number of off-axis plies to be employed to avoid manufacturing damage triggering premature failure. The chosen geometry and the layup create an inhomogeneous stress field inside the specimen and cause a sequence of different damage modes to occur. To better understand the resulting damage phenomena in such a specimen and draw conclusions on the effective fibre stresses, we developed a 1:1 digital representation of the composite specimen using homogenised ply and interface properties. The results confirm that such specimen has a nearly uniform stressfield at the stress levels where significant fibre damage is present in the 0° layer - an important validation for the analysis of in-situ experiments.