Direct FE2 for simulating strain-rate dependent compressive failure of cylindrical CFRP

In this study, the strain-rate dependent compressive failure of cylindrical carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) is simulated by using Direct FE2. The Direct FE2 method can reduce the computational cost compared with conventional FE2 multiscale simulation. It can be implemented with commercial FE code, without the complicated coding usually required for conventional FE2. At the microscale level, the true dimension of the individual fibers, failure of the fiber/matrix interface, and the strain-rate dependence of failure strength of the matrix material are modeled. These microscale characteristics are used to directly model the macroscale strain-rate dependent failure of a cylindrical CFRP specimen subjected to the Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar (SHPB) test. The obtained FE2 numerical results are in good agreement with the experimental results.