Prediction of damage in a randomly oriented short-fiber composite plate containing a central hole

A micro-macro mechanistic approach to matrix cracking in randomly oriented short-fiber composites is used in this paper for the damage and failure analysis of a random glass/epoxy plate containing a central hole under tensile loading. At the micro-scale, the virgin and reduced elastic properties of the composite are computed using micromechanical models and are then averaged over all possible orientations and weighted by an orientation distribution function. Next, the macroscopic response is performed by means of a continuum damage mechanics formulation in which the damage evolution law is obtained using a damage threshold function and the concepts of thermodynamics of continuous media. Damage accumulations leading to initiation and propagation of a macroscopic crack are modeled using a vanishing element technique.