Micro-scale finite element simulation of the viscoelastic damping in unidirectional fiber reinforced composites

A micro-scale finite element method is proposed to study the damping behavior of composite materials. The study focuses on the unidirectional fiber reinforced composites including viscoelastic constituents. The proposed method is demonstrated with the simulations performed on periodic Representative Volume Elements (RVEs) composed of idealistic square packed glass fibers in an epoxy polymer. The boundary problem is solved for a cyclic loading and thereby the different loss factors are computed through the homogenized stress and strain values. The results are compared to the strain energy method which is often used in the damping study of micro-scale composites. Finally, influence of fibers distribution and fiber volume fraction on the damping behavior of a unidirectional fiber reinforced composite is investigated