A 2D boundary element formulation to model the constitutive behavior of heterogeneous microstructures considering dissipative phenomena

Abstract

A boundary element formulation to obtain the constitutive response of heterogeneous microstructures is proposed, considering a RVE-based multiscale theory. The sub-region technique is adopted to model the RVE (Representative Volume Element), where voids and inclusions can be defined inside the matrix and different elastic properties and constitutive models can be assumed for each phase. Triangular cells are adopted to approximate the dissipative forces over the RVE domain, where they are assumed constant. After a strain vector is imposed to the microstructure boundary, its elastic forces field is obtained and the respective strain field computed. Then, according to the RVE-based multiscale theory, the RVE equilibrium problem must be solved what requires an iterative procedure to find the displacement fluctuations field that auto-equilibrates the microstructure stress field. After the RVE solution, the boundary tractions must be recalculated to consider the displacement fluctuations field as well as the dissipative forces. Then, from the boundary tractions the homogenized stress vector can be computed. The homogenized constitutive tensor is evaluated considering the constitutive tensors of all cell nodes and also the consistent tangent operator. To validate the proposed model, the homogenized responses of different microstructures are compared to the responses obtained via finite element model.