28 Sep Doctoral thesis on a computational micromechanics investigation of longitudinal strength in unidirectional fibre reinforced composites
Mostafa Barzegar defended his PhD thesis entitled: “A computational micromechanics investigation of longitudinal strength in unidirectional fibre reinforced Composites” on September 26, 2022. The PhD advisors of the doctoral thesis are Prof. Josep Costa (AMADE – UdG), Dr. Carlos González (IMDEA Materials), and Dr. Claudio Lopes who passed away in 2020.
In this thesis, the capability of computational micromechanics to make virtual predictions of failure processes in unidirectional FRP composites is extended with respect to the state of the art. Towards this end, several computational micromechanics methods are developed, each with its own challenge and research objective. Then, a comprehensive research was conducted on the stress concentration factor and the failure mechanism at the micromechanical level. Finally, a micromechanical finite element model is employed to investigate the stress intensity factor of a single fiber with a straight-fronted edge crack embedded in a matrix.
The thesis has been funded by a FPI grant with reference BES-2016–076544 from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (MINECO).