2D micromechanical analysis of SiC/Al metal matrix composites under tensile, shear and combined tensile/shear loads

The influence of interface strength and loading conditions on the mechanical behavior of the metal–matrix composites is investigated in this paper. A program is developed to generate automatically 2D micromechanical Finite element (FE) models including interface, in which both the locations and dimensions of Silicon–Carbide (SiC) particles are randomly distributed. Finite element simulations of the deformation and damage evolution of SiC particle reinforced Aluminum (Al) alloy composite are carried out for different microstructures and interphase strengths under tensile, shear and combined tensile/shear loads. 2D cohesive element is applied to describe the fracture and failure process of interphase, while the damage models based on maximum principal stress criterion and the stress triaxial indicator are developed within Abaqus/Standard Subroutine USDFLD to simulate the failure process of SiC particles and aluminum alloy matrix, respectively. A series of computational experiments are performed to study the influence of particle arrangements, interface strengths and loading conditions of the representative volume element (RVE) on composite stiffness and strength properties.