The Capriccio method: a scale bridging approach for polymers extended towards inelasticity

Abstract

In this contribution we present an extension of the multiscale Capriccio method towards inelasticity. This enables coupled simulations of a particle domain embedded into a continuum with particular focus on polymer systems. Starting from the method's initial implementation of pure elasticity, we substitute the nonlinear elastic continuum constitutive law by a recently developed viscoelastic-viscoplastic one which is able to capture the mechanical behaviour of the particle system in a much larger strain range. Furthermore, we discuss numerical aspects like the choice of time steps and iteration numbers.

A particle‐continuum coupling method for amorphous polymers with multiple particle‐based domains

“…The Capriccio method and its extended versions [12][13][14][15] have been used to study the interphase property of silicapolystyrene nanocomposites [16,17] and the fracture process of amorphous polymers [18]. In these simulations, only the area of interest is treated with a cubic MD domain such as the vicinity of the nanoparticles (NPs) and the crack tip while the remaining part is resolved at continuum scale such that the total amount of the materials studied can be enlarged.…”

A particle‐continuum coupling method for multiscale simulations of viscoelastic–viscoplastic amorphous glassy polymers

“…As initially attempted, the Capriccio method has been extended to inelasticity in one of our preceding publications 28 by employing a viscoelastic–viscoplastic (VE‐VP) constitutive model, which can accurately reproduce the mechanical behavior of the polymer up to a strain of with a constant strain rate. In the present work, we further extend the inelastic Capriccio method to larger strains with different strain rates and discuss its temporal coupling in terms of computational cost and accuracy.…”