Modeling of thermal cracking behaviors of fiber-reinforced composites

In this paper, a coupled thermal-mechanical-damage model, Material Failure Process Analysis for Thermo code (abbreviated as MFPA-thermo), was applied to investigate the formation, extension and coalescence of cracks in FRCs, caused by the thermal mismatch of the matrix and the particles under uniform temperature variations. The effects of the thermal mismatch between the matrix and fibers on the stress distribution and crack development were also numerically studied. The influences of the material heterogeneity, the failure patterns of FRCs at varied temperatures are simulated and compared with the experimental results in the present paper. The results show that the mechanisms of thermal damage and fracture of the composite remarkedably depend on the difference between the coefficients of thermal expansion of the fibers and the matrix on a meso-scale. Meanwhile, the simulations indicate that the thermal cracking of the FRCs at uniform varied temperatures is an evolution process from diffused damage, nucleation, and finally linkage of cracks.
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