Computational modelling of particulate composites using meshless methods

This thesis deals with the numerical simulation of particulate composites using one of the more stable and accurate meshless methods namely the element free Galerkin (EFG) method. To accurately describe the material inhomogeneities present in particulate composites, an extrinsic enrichment function is incorporated into the approximation of the EFG method which produces more versatile, robust and effective computational methodology. The effectiveness of the proposed numerical model is then investigated by employing the model to analyse different configurations of particulate composites. The accuracy and efficiency of this enriched EFG method are studied numerically by comparing the results obtained with the available analytical solutions and other numerical techniques. Further, it is demonstrated that the method developed in this work has the potential to efficiently model syntactic foam, a type of particulate composites. This is illustrated by performing multi-scale modelling using homogenisation technique which confirms satisfactory comparison of the numerical method with experimental results. To further explore the applicability of the developed methodology, an enriched or extended finite element method (XFEM) based technique, is applied to study crack inclusion and interaction of crack propagation with matrix and particles within particle reinforced composite material