Influence of geometrical parameters on the elastic response of unidirectional composite materials

A numerical approach to predict the elastic properties of composite materials departing from the properties of the individual constituents is presented. Using a recently proposed algorithm which generates a random distribution of fibres emulating the real distribution in the transverse cross-section of composite materials, an estimate of the elastic properties is obtained by performing volumetric homogenisation of the results from micromechanical analyses. The influence of different geometrical parameters used in the generation of the random distribution of fibres is analysed, namely, the dimensions of the representative volume element, the fibre radius, and the interval between neighbouring fibres.