Quantitative prediction of thermomechanical coupling effect in thermo-elasto-viscoplastic composite materials

Thermo-elasto-viscoplastic analyses are performed to view the thermomechanical coupling effect in composite materials subjected to quasistatic and dynamic loads. An unmixing-mixing scheme is utilized to describe the thermo-elasto-viscoplastic characteristics of orthotropic composites. The equation of motion and the energy conservation equation based on fully coupled thermomechanics are formulated with constitutive arrangement by the unmixing-mixing concept. By considering some auxiliary conditions, the initial-boundary value problem is completely set up. In computational aspects, the governing equations are reformulated with the finite element method, and then the time marching techniques fit for the full discretization are applied. To solve the ultimate nonlinear equations, the successive iteration algorithm is constructed with a subincrementing technique. Finally, numerical examples are presented to show the fundamental trends of the thermo-elasto-viscoplastic behavior of composite laminates. The progress of viscoplastic deformation and the temperature change owing to the coupling effect are carefully examined when the composite laminates are subjected to repeated cyclic loading.