A finite strain incremental-secant homogenization model for elasto-plastic composites

This paper presents a finite strain extension of the incremental-secant mean-field homogenization (MFH) formulation for two-phase elasto-plastic composites. The formulation of the local finite strain elasto-plastic constitutive equations of each phase is based on a multiplicative decomposition of the deformation gradient as suggested by Simo in (Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 99(1):61–112, 1992.). The latter has proposed algorithms which preserve the classical return mapping schemes of the infinitesimal theory by using principal Kirchhoff stresses and logarithmic eigenvalues of the left elastic Cauchy–Green strain. Relying on this property, we show that, by considering a quadratic logarithmic free energy and J2-flow theory at the local level, infinitesimal strain incremental-secant MFH is readily extended to finite strains. The proposed formulation and corresponding numerical algorithms are then presented. Finally, the predictions are illustrated with several numerical simulations which are verified against full-field finite element simulations of composite cells, demonstrating that the micro-mechanically based approach is able to predict the influence of the micro-structure and of its evolution on the macroscopic properties in a very cost-effective manner.