Contact analysis for composite materials
Daniel NELIAS (INSA Lyon), Julien Leroux ()
Contact Mechanics
Tue 4:20 - 5:40
Barus-Holley 161
Composite structures generally have complex architectures. Homogenization tools have been developed to provide the physical properties of such materials at a macroscopic scale. However in contact mechanics, when the scale of the composite reinforcement is of the same order of magnitude as the contact size, the presence of heterogeneities within the matrix modifies the contact pressure distribution and thereof the contact solution. A new method based on the Eshelby equivalent inclusion method (EIM) is proposed and implemented in a semi-analytical contact solver for solving this problem. The equivalent inclusion method in the sense of Eshelby allows one to describe accurately the effect of inhomogeneities (cavities, inclusions, fibers or strands). In the present investigation and for simplicity only one of the bodies in contact contains multiple heterogeneities of cuboïdal and/or ellipsoidal shapes, and their degenerated forms (oblate spheroid, prolate ellipsoid, sphere, cylinder, flat disk,...). This method is modified and improved in order to take into account the mutual influence between neighboring heterogeneous inclusions. A coupling with the software WiseTex allows to describe the geometry of the actual weaving of the composite, the material properties of the fibers and of the matrix. A fine segmentation of the numerical model allows one to discretize reinforcements by multiple equivalent ellipsoidal heterogeneities. The subsequent contact pressure distribution will be more specifically analyzed.