FEM Implementation of the Coupled Elastoplastic/Damage Model: Failure Prediction of Fiber Reinforced Polymers (FRPs) Composites

The coupled damage/plasticity model for meso-level which is ply-level in case of Uni-Directional (UD) Fiber Reinforced Polymers (FRPs) is implemented. The mathematical formulations, particularly the plasticity part, are discussed in a comprehensive manner. The plastic potential is defined in effective stress space and the damage evolution is based on the theory of irreversible thermodynamics. The model which is illustrated here has been implemented by different authors previously but, the complete pre-requisite algorithm ingredients used in the implicit scheme implementation are not available in the literature. This leads to the complexity in its implementation. Furthermore, this model is not available as a built-in material constitutive law in the commercial Finite Element Method (FEM) softwares. To facilitate the implementation and understanding, all the mathematical formulations are presented in great detail. In addition, the elastoplastic consistent operator needed for implementation in the implicit solution scheme is also derived. The model is formularized in incremental form to be used in the Return Mapping Algorithm (RMA). The quasi-static load carrying capability and non-linearity caused by the collaborative effect of damage and plasticity is predicted with User MATerial (UMAT) subroutine which solves the FEM problem with implicit techniques in ABAQUS.