Appropriate number of unit cells in a representative volume element for micro-structural bifurcation encountered in a multi-scale modeling Original Research Article

The paper proposes a method to determine the number of unit cells (basic structural elements) to be employed for a representative volume element (RVE) of the multi-scale modeling for a solid with periodic micro-structures undergoing bifurcation. Main difficulties for the multi-scale modeling implementing instability are twofold: loss of convexity of the total potential energy that should be homogenized and determination of a pertinent RVE that contains multiple unit cells. In order to resolve these difficulties, variational formulation is achieved with the help of Γ-convergence theory within the framework of non-convex homogenization method, while the number of unit cells in an RVE is determined by the block-diagonalization method of group-theoretic bifurcation theory. The latter method enables us to identify the most critical bifurcation mode among possible bifurcation patterns for an assembly of arbitrary number of periodic micro-structures. Thus, the appropriate number of unit cells to be employed in the RVE can be determined in a systematic manner. Representative numerical examples for a cellular solid show the feasibility of the proposed method and illustrate material instability at a macroscopic point due to geometrical instability in a micro-scale.