Computational Material Characterization of Active Fiber Composite

Active fiber composite (AFC) is composed of many different materials–piezoelectric fiber, polymer matrix, kapton mold, and kapton electrode and it is usually embedded in the glass fiber composites. In addition, there is an active/inactive region in the fiber. Therefore, it is ideal to adopt a full microscopic model and directly analyze the model without any simplifying assumptions. In this work, all the constituents of AFC are modeled and simulated directly in microscopic scale level. Material properties and actuation performances are characterized and compared with the previous experimental measurements. Some material constants which are difficult to be experimentally determined but needed for three-dimensional (3-D) finite element (FE) simulations can be obtained by this approach. Effects of mesh density are examined and local stresses are observed in detail. To solve a large scale problem, parallel computing technology is introduced.