On the characterisation of elastic properties of long fibre composites using computational homogenisation

This paper addresses the prediction of the elastic properties of long fibre-reinforced composites from the finite element-based computational homogenisation of a Representative Volume Element (RVE) in the range of moderately large strains. The macroscopic elastic properties are estimated by matching the reference tangential elasticity tensors of the homogenisation-based model and an assumed transversely isotropic hyperelasticity model. The effectiveness of the approach is illustrated by means of a numerical example where the solution of a boundary value problem obtained with the assumed hyperelastic model and the predicted parameters is compared with that obtained with a fully coupled multi-scale simulation.