Computational Micromechanics of Damage Initiation and Growth in Functionally Graded Composites

Leon Mishnaevsky Jr. (1) and Dietmar Gross (2)

(1)

Department of Materials Research, Ris National Laboratory, Technical University of Denmark, AFM-228, DK-4000 Roskilde, DENMARK Email: leon.mishnaevsky@risoe.dk
(2)

Division of Mechanics, Department of Civil Engineering & Geodesy, TU Darmstadt, Hochschulstrasse 1, 64289 Darmstadt, GERMANY Email: gross@mechanik.tu-darmstadt.de

Abstract. The purpose of this work is to investigate the effect of microstructures of functionally graded particle reinforced composites on the strength and damage resistance in the materials. In order to study the microstructure-strength and microstructure-damage resistance relationships of graded composites with metal matrix and ceramic inclusions, a series of numerical mesomechanical experiments has been carried out. The tensile stress-strain curves, fraction of failed particles versus applied strain curves, and stress and damage distributions at different stages of loading were determined for different generic (artificially designed) graded microstructures and compared. It was shown that the flow stress and stiffness of composites increase and failure strain decreases with decreasing property gradient (i.e., when the particles become more localized in some material regions). The damage growth in particles in graded composites initiates within particles, which are located in the transition zone between the zone of high particle density and the particle-free regions. Keywords: composites, damage, computational mesomechanics, finite elements, microstructures

INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this work is to investigate the effect of microstructures of functionally graded, SiC particle reinforced Al composites on the strength and damage resistance of the materials using the computational testing of composites with different artificially designed graded microstructures.

AUTOMATIC GENERATION OF MULTIPARTICLE UNIT CELLS

Multiparticle unit cells with many round or elliptical particles, arranged with different gradations, were designed and meshed using two-dimensional version of the program Meso3D [1-5]. The graded distributions of the particles were generated as follows [4]. The X-coordinates of the particle centers were calculated using uniform random number generator, whereas the Y-coordinates of particle centers were calculated as random values distributed according to Gauss law. The mean values of the corresponding normal distribution of the coordinates of particle centers were assumed to be the Y- coordinate of the upper boundary of the box. Fig. 1 shows schematically the design of such microstructures. The standard deviations of the probability distribution of the distances between the upper boundary of the cell and the particle center were varied, from very small standard deviation (0.5 mm in the cell of 10 mm height) (highly graded arrangements) to the deviations comparable with the box size (15mm) (which correspond to uniformly random particle arrangements.

FIGURE 1. Design of artificial graded microstructures, and some examples of the generated microstructures with different degrees of gradation.

The reciprocal of the value of the standard deviation of the distance of the particle centers from the upper boundary of the cell will be called degree of gradation hereafter. Therefore, the microstructures with a high degree of gradation will have highly localized particle arrangements, whereas the low degree of gradation means that particles are arranged almost homogeneously. The type of microstructure will be designated here by its standard deviation: for instance, grad3 means a graded microstructure with the standard deviation 3 mm. The ellipsoidal particles with different aspect ratios were oriented randomly, or aligned vertically and horizontally. The generated microstructures were meshed with the TRIA6 triangular elements. Each model contained approximately 12000 finite elements. The procedure of the microstructure and mesh design is given in more detail elsewhere [1, 4].

NUMERICAL EXPERIMENTS Finite Element Model

Square unit cell of dimensions 10 x 10 mm, which contained 100 round or elongated SiC, was subject to the uniaxial tensile displacement loading, 2.0 mm. The nodes at the upper surface of the box were connected, and the displacement was applied to only one node. Uniaxial tensile response of each microstructure was computed by the finite element method, using the plain strain model. The simulations were done with ABAQUS/Standard. The SiC particles behaved as elastic isotropic damageable solids, characterized by Youngs modulus EP=485 GPa, Poissons ratio 0.165 and the local damage criterion, discussed below. The Al matrix was modeled as isotropic elasto-plastic damageable solid, with Youngs modulus EM=73 GPa, and Poissons ratio 0.345. The experimental stress-strain curve for the Al matrix was taken from [7, 5], and approximated by the deformation flow theory relation (Ludwik hardening law): y=yn+hpln, where y -the actual flow stress, yn - the initial yield stress, and pl- the accumulated equivalent plastic strain, h and n - hardening coefficient and the hardening exponent. The parameters of the curve for the matrix were as follows: yn =205 MPa, h= 457 MPa, n=0.20. The volume content of SiC particles was taken 10 %, The criteria and conditions of damage and local failure of SiC and Al phases, which were used in our simulations of damage and fracture of the composite, were taken from literature data, mainly, from the research on the damage parameter identification for Al matrix in Al/SiC composites carried out by Wulf [9], and the investigations of particle failure carried out by Derrien et al. [8]. In our simulations, the Rice-Tracey damage indicator, verified by Wulf [9], was used as a parameter of the void growth in the Al matrix: Dcr=0.2. To model the damage and local failure of SiC particle, the criterion of critical maximum principal stress in the particle material was used. According to [8], the SiC particles in Al/SiC composites become damaged and ultimately fail, when the critical maximum principal stress in a particle exceeds 1500 MPa. This value was used in our simulations as a criterion of damage of SiC particles as well. In order to simulate damage evolution, the element weakening approach was used [11-13]. An ABAQUS Subroutine USRFLD, which calculates the Rice-Tracey damage indicator in the matrix and the maximum principal stress in particles, and allows to visualize the damage (microcrack and void) distribution in the material was developed. After an element failed, the Young modulus of this element was set to a very low value (50 Pa, i.e., about 0.00001% of the initial value). As output parameters of the numerical testing of the microstructures, the effective response of the materials, the microcrack density in particles versus the far-field strain curves and the damage distribution were determined. The far-field applied strain at which many particles fail and the falling branch of the stress-strain curve begins will be called failure strain hereafter.

Effect of Gradation Extent/Degree on Damage Evolution

The purpose of this part of the investigation was to clarify how the degree of gradation influences the strength and damage evolution in graded composites. The deformation and damage evolution of Al/SiC composites with graded SiC particle arrangements (with different degrees of gradation) were simulated numerically.

FIGURE 2. Fraction of failed elements in the particles plotted versus the far-field applied strain for the graded
particle arrangements with different degrees of gradation.

Many graded microstructures with different standard deviations of the distributions of Y-coordinates (which ensured different gradation degrees) and with different random number seed parameter for random X coordinates were generated, meshed and tested. Figure 1 shows several examples of the generated microstructures. At this stage of work, only round particles were considered. Fig. 2 shows some typical curves of the fraction of failed elements in the particles plotted versus the far-field applied strain for the graded particle arrangements with different degrees of gradation. Figure 3 shows the failure strain (critical applied strain) plotted versus the degree of gradation in the composites. It is of interest that the flow stress and stiffness of composites decrease with increasing gradation. Apparently, the more homogeneous is the distribution of hard inclusions in the matrix, the stiffer is the composite. If the particles are localized in one layer in the composite, the regions with low particle density determine the deformation of the material, and that leads to low stiffness.

FIGURE 3. Failure strain of the composite plotted versus the gradation degree in the composites.

FIGURE 4. Damage distribution in the particles and in the matrix (grad3 microstructure, far-field strain 0.29).

One can see from Figure 2 that all the microstructures have rather low damage growth rate during the initial stage of damage evolution. At some far-field strain (called here failure strain), the intensive (almost vertical) damage growth takes place and the falling branch of the stress-strain curve begins. For all the graded microstructures, the failure strain is higher than for the homogeneous microstructures. Failure strain of composites increases with increasing gradation. Figure 4 shows the damage distribution in the particles and in the matrix (grad3 microstructure, far-field strain 0.29). Figure 5 shows the mechanism of the damage formation in the composite, observed in our simulations: the void growth begins near the failed particles, and the damaged area expands in the direction to the nearest damaged particle. This mechanism has been observed experimentally as well [8].

(a)
damaged area, observed in the simulations.

(b)

FIGURE 5. Mechanism of void initiation near a failed particle (a) and of the expansion of the

CONCLUSIONS
Failure strain increases with increasing gradation. The more localized and highly graded microstructures have lower stiffness and higher failure strain, than homogeneous microstructures with the same particle content.

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