Isochronous analysis of the behaviour of ceramic-matrix composites under thermomechanical cyclic loading conditions

The design of components made of ceramic-matrix composites requires computations of both fatigue and creep responses. Micromechanical analyses under monotonic loading conditions have been integrated within the framework of continuum thermodynamics. The extension to creep and/or fatigue loadings usually leads to a description of the state of the material with a large number of internal variables. In the present paper, an isochronous approach is presented in order to decrease this number, and therefore to give an answer with current computational facilities in a time equivalent to calculations for monotonic loading conditions. The main objective of this paper is to present and illustrate an original method that allows the designer to simplify the computation of the long-term analyses (i.e. fatigue, creep) to reduce the CPU time down to a monotonic analysis.