Analysis of crack-tip stress field in unidirectional fiber-reinforced composites based on 3D micromechanical model.

• A micromechanical model was first established to study crack and fibers. • The isotropic, anisotropic and microscopic models were compared. • The impacts of crack size and location, fiber content on stress field were revealed. • The variations of various mechanical properties were discussed. Accurately clarifying the influence of cracks on the mechanical behaviors of unidirectional fiber-reinforced composites (UD FRCs) is of great significance for the structural integrity evaluation of UD FRCs with defects. Although several experiments and numerical analyses have explored the impact of cracks on stress field, satisfactory quantitative characterizations of crack size, a / W and location, Δ , fiber content, V f have not yet been obtained. In this paper, the accurate and detailed microscopic models containing crack were first established and thoroughly validated. Then, a parametric study was conducted using three-dimensional micromechanical analysis to investigate how the crack size and location, fiber content affect the von Mises, stress triaxiality, Lode angle and J -integral of UD FRCs. Results showed that homogeneous models, whether isotropic or anisotropic, cannot accurately describe the mechanical behavior of cracked UD FRCs. The von Mises stress and J -integral are greatly influenced by the crack and fiber content, while stress triaxiality and Lode angle are not sensitive to changes in these factors. Further, the von Mises and J -integral increase with the decrease of V f and the increase of a / W , but show a more complex trend in the variation of Δ. These findings will help clarify the failure mechanism of cracked UD FRCs and can be used for reliability evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]