Adaptive Affine Homogenization Method for Visco-hyperelastic Composites with Interfacial Damage

Abstract

Despite intense research on the homogenization methods, it still is a challenging task to predict the nonlinear mechanical responses of visco-hyperelastic particulate-reinforced composites. In this work, we propose the adaptive affine method, a novel mean-field homogenization method designed to ensure the consistency of the accumulated strain state and the concentration tensor, and apply the method to predict the mechanical response of the composite in the large strain regime under uniaxial, cyclic, and bi-axial loadings. Our method is also extended to predict the mechanical response in the presence of interfacial imperfections described by linear cohesive traction-separation laws. The analytic predictions are validated against finite element analyses of representative volume elements. We believe that our adaptive affine method can be extended to model various nonlinear responses of load-bearing composites including the effects of (visco)plasticity and finite deformation.