A multi-level computational model for multi-scale damage analysis in composite and porous materials

An adaptive multi-level methodology is developed in this paper to create a hierarchy of computational sub-domains with varying resolution for multiple scale problems. It is intended to concurrently predict evolution of variables at the structural and microstructural scales, as well as to track the incidence and propagation of microstructural damage in composite and porous materials. The microstructural analysis is conducted with the Voronoi cell finite element model (VCFEM), while a conventional displacement based FEM code executes the macroscopic analysis. The model introduces three levels in the computational domain which include macro, macro-micro and microscopic analysis. It differentiates between non-critical and critical regions and ranges from macroscopic computations using continuum constitutive relations to zooming in at 'hotspots' for pure microscopic simulations. Coupling between the scales in regions of periodic microstructure is accomplished through asymptotic homogenization. An adaptive process significantly increases the efficiency while retaining appropriate level of accuracy for each region. Numerical examples are conducted for composite and porous materials with a variety of microscopic architectures to demonstrate the potential of the model. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.