Composites Science and Technology 218 (2022) 109139

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Composites Science and Technology

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compscitech

The effects of fiber radius and fiber shape deviations and of matrix void
content on the strengths and failure mechanisms of UD composites by
computational micromechanics
Chunwang He a, b, Jingran Ge a, b, **, Xiaofei Cao a, b, Yanfei Chen a, b, Haosen Chen a,
Daining Fang a, b, *
a
Institute of Advanced Structure Technology, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, 100081, China
b
Beijing Key Laboratory of Lightweight Multi-functional Composite Materials and Structures, Beijing, 100081, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Manufacturing plays an important role in the properties of composites, which may lead to two types of un­
A. Polymer-matrix composites (PMCs) certainties: (1) carbon fiber manufacturing deviations, such as the bean-shaped PAN carbon fibers, the
B. Strength lognormal-distributed fiber radius, etc. (2) composites manufacturing deviations, such as the inter-fiber voids
C. Computational mechanics
and matrix voids. Although several experiments have been conducted to assess their effects on the mechanical
B. Manufacturing uncertainty
properties of composites, a satisfactory result of quantitative characterization of fiber radius and fiber shape
deviations and of matrix void content have not been obtained. In this paper, a parametric study based on the
computational micromechanics is conducted to reveal the effects of fiber radius and fiber shape deviations and of
matrix void content on the strengths and failure mechanisms of UD composites under four loading conditions, i.e.
the transverse tension, compression, shear and longitudinal shear. Firstly, the constitutive laws of constituents, i.
e. carbon fiber, matrix and interface, are established to characterize their mechanical responses. Then, the UD
RVEs with fiber radius and fiber shape deviations and with matrix void are modeled individually based on
experimental observation and statistical distribution. After qualitative validation of failure modes and quanti­
tative validation of stress-strain curves, the methodology is applied to predict the stress-strain curves and failure
modes of UD RVE with manufacturing uncertainties and the results show that not all manufacturing uncertainties
have a detrimental effect on the mechanical properties of UD composites.

1. Introduction evaporation and air entrapment during composites manufacturing pro­

Carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites are the
preferred materials in the structural applications where the lightweight
and high strength drive the structural design. One of the drawbacks
limiting the application of CFRP composites is that their complex me­
chanical properties are hardly predictable, which depends deeply on
their micro-structures and the properties of constituents, i.e. the carbon
fiber, matrix and interface. Besides, the production processes for carbon
fibers and composites are also significant as they can lead to the
manufacturing process-induced deviations, such as the non-circular
carbon fibers, matrix voids, etc. For example, the utilization of textile
grade PAN as the carbon fiber precursor in heat treatment process leads
to a kidney-bean shaped cross-section of carbon fibers [1,2]. The
cess can lead to the formation of voids in composites [3]. These de­
viations during the carbon fiber and composites manufacturing process
can affect the strengths and failure mechanism of CFRP composites.
However, an idealized finite element (FE) model cannot characterize the
effects of these local deviations and a quantitative understanding is still
lacking.
The manufacturing process of PAN-based carbon fiber has been
conducted firstly within the temperature 200–300 ◦ C for the stabiliza­
tion of PAN precursor. During this stage, the PAN chains are transformed
into the ladder structure. Then, the carbonization process is carried
within the temperature of 400–1600 ◦ C under inert atmosphere. In this
stage, the non-carbon elements, such as hydrogen, oxygen etc., are
removed and turbostratic graphite structure is formed. The

* Corresponding author. Institute of Advanced Structure Technology, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, 100081, China.
** Corresponding author. Institute of Advanced Structure Technology, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, 100081, China.
E-mail addresses: gejingran@bit.edu.cn (J. Ge), fangdn@pku.edu.cn (D. Fang).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compscitech.2021.109139
Received 8 April 2021; Received in revised form 13 September 2021; Accepted 5 November 2021
Available online 8 November 2021
0266-3538/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
C. He et al.
Fig. 1. (a) Micrograph of fiber radius fluctuation and matrix micro-voids [21]; (b) micrograph of non-circular fiber shape [6]; (c) RVE with fiber radius fluctuation;
(d) RVE with elliptical fiber shape; (e) RVE with micro-voids for matrix.
manufacturing of PAN-based carbon fibers has been widely studied by
experiments [4,5]. Although the carbon fibers are expected to have a
circular cross-section, the production process could make the fiber shape
to be non-circular. Gentz et al. [6] studied the in-plane shear properties
of M40J/PMR–II–50 and M60J/PMR–II–50 composites and the fiber
shapes for PAN-based M40J and M60J fibers were approximately
elliptical. Lu et al. [7] investigated the micro-structures of PAN-based
carbon fibers with various mechanical properties and the carbon fiber
also showed an elliptical cross-section. Recently, the textile grade PAN
used as carbon fiber precursor has been developed to reduce the cost of
the manufacturing process [1,2]. However, one consequence of reduced
cost is that the carbon fibers always show a kidney-bean shaped
cross-section. Sharp et al. [8] used ellipse to fit the kidney-bean shaped
carbon fiber and measured the fiber orientation from real microscopy. In
addition to the deviation in shape of carbon fiber, the radius of carbon
fiber is also hard to keep a constant during the production process of
carbon fibers. Vaughan et al. [9] developed a combined
experimental-numerical method to generate the statistically equivalent
fiber distributions for CFRP composites and he demonstrated that the
fiber radius conformed a log-normal distribution measured from the real
micrograph. Wang et al. [10] and Babušhk et al. [11] also found that
there was a deviation for fiber radius in CFRP composites. The de­
viations of carbon fiber shape and radius have been observed in exper­
iments, but the carbon fibers are always modeled as circular with the
constant radius in most numerical studies [12–15]. A quantitative
evaluation of the effects of deviations for carbon fiber shape and radius
have not been clearly clarified. Recently, a virtual material testing
method [16] has been developed to evaluate the effects of properties of
constituents and micro-structures for composites, which has a potential
to address the effects of manufacturing deviations and avoid unnec­
essary experimental costs.
Voids in composites can be found in forms of different shapes and
sizes, which are usually generated by two sources. The first one is the air
entrapment during lay-up process and the second one is the evaporation
of components or contaminants during high-temperature curing process
[3]. These voids usually exist in two forms, i.e. the inter-fiber voids and
matrix voids. The inter-fiber voids generally appear between the fibers
where the viscous matrix cannot easily flow in during composites
manufacturing and the matrix voids are caused by the small air bubbles
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Composites Science and Technology 218 (2022) 109139
being embedded in matrix. These two kinds of voids have been
demonstrated to be detrimental to the properties of composites in
experimental studies [17,18]. Hernández et al. [18] investigated the
effects of curing cycle on the distribution of void and the inter-laminar
shear strength for CFRP composites, and the results showed that the
different curing cycles would lead to a different percentages of matrix
porosity. Nikishkov et al. [17] proposed a method to quantitatively
characterize the void dimension based on X-ray Micro computed To­
mography (μCT). Several numerical investigations have also been
developed to evaluate the effects of voids. Vajari et al. [19] studied the
effects of inter-fiber voids and matrix voids on the transverse mechanical
response of unidirectional composites while the shear behavior of UD
composites were not investigated. Hyde et al. [20] investigated the ef­
fects of inter-fiber voids on the strengths of UD composites, while the
matrix voids were not considered. Despite many significant studies were
conducted to investigate the effects of voids, a quantitative investigation
of the effects of matrix voids on the CFRP composites under various
loading conditions is still lacking.
Based on the aforementioned argument, it is necessary to quantita­
tively evaluate the effects of fiber radius and fiber shape deviations and
of matrix void content on the strengths and failure mechanisms of UD
composites. This paper is organized as follows: the methodology of
computational micromechanics, containing the constitutive laws for
constituents, FE model and simulation process, is introduced in Section
2. The qualitative and quantitative validations of established models are
presented firstly in Section 3. Then, the FE analysis for UD composites
with manufacturing uncertainties is conducted, which aims to evaluate
the effects of carbon fiber radius and fiber shape deviations and of
matrix void content. Finally, several conclusions are drawn in Section 4.
2. Computational micromechanics model
This section illustrates the details of computational framework,
including the constitutive laws of microscopic constituents, the
modeling of representative volume element (RVE) for UD composites
and the simulation process. As observed in experiments [6,21], the
production process (stabilization and carbonization) of carbon fibers
would lead to the deviations of fiber shape and radius and the
manufacturing process of composites can lead to the matrix voids, which
C. He et al. Composites Science and Technology 218 (2022) 109139

Table 1
Material properties of carbon fiber.
Ef1 (GPa) Ef2 (GPa) Gf12 (GPa) Gf23 (GPa) μf12 Xf,t (MPa) Xf,c (MPa) αf1 (10− 6/◦ C) αf2 (10− 6/◦ C)
230 40 24 14.3 0.26 3528 2470 − 3.15 10.074

are shown in Fig. 1(a)-Fig. 1(b). To investigate the effects of these fac­ Poisson’s ratio. The flow rule is given by:
tors, three groups of RVEs are established, which can be found in Fig. 1
∂g
(c), (d), and Fig. 1(e). More details will be presented later. Δεplas
m = Δλ (4)
∂σ m

2.1. Constitutive laws for constituents where Δεplas

m is the plastic strain increment and Δλ is the plastic multi­
plier increment. Following the experiments of tension and compression,
The constituents of UD RVE contain the carbon fibers, polymer ma­ the hardening relations of tension and compression can be explicitly
trix and interface between fiber and matrix. Once the constitutive laws written as:
of these constituents are established, the mechanical response of UD ⎧ ( )
RVE under various loadings can be calculated by the computational ⎨ σm,t = σ0 + Ht 1 − e− nt λt
(5)
m,t
( )
micromechanical method. The constituents follow the assumption of ⎩ σm,c = σ 0m,c + Hc 1 − e− nc λc
small strain and the damage model of constituents are established based
on the continuum damage mechanics.
where σ0m,t and σ 0m,c are the initial tensile and compressive yield stresses.
Based on the experiments [22], it can be found that the carbon fiber
Ht and Hc are the tensile and compressive hardening parameters. nt and
exhibits brittle fracture and there is no obvious plastic deformation.
nc are material parameters to describe the plastic behavior. λt and λc are
Thus, the carbon fiber is modeled as transversally isotropic linear elastic.
the plastic multipliers for tension and compression. Once the yield stress
The elastic constants (Ef1, Ef2, Gf12, Gf23, μf12) and the thermal expansion
reaches the failure strength, the damage would appear in matrix. The
coefficients (af1, αf2) of T300 carbon fiber are listed in Table 1. In
damage constitutive relation can be written as:
simulation, the carbon fiber keeps elastic without damage behavior,
because the failure mechanism of UD composites under transverse ten­ εelas (6)
m = S(dm ) : σ m
sion, compression, shear, and longitudinal shear are determined by the
polymer resin and interface, which has also be observed in experiments where σ m is the nominal stress tensor and S(dm) is the compliance matrix
[12–15]. with damage. dm is the scalar damage variable to characterize the
The polymer matrix is modeled as isotropic elastic-plastic solids. The stiffness degradation. The damage activation function Fm is given by:
plas
strain εm can be decomposed into the elastic εelas
m and plastic εm parts, Fm = φm − rm ≤ 0 (7)
and the effective stress ̃σ m can be determined by the stiffness C0m and
elastic strain, given by: where φm is the loading function related to the failure criterion; rm is the
damage threshold. The value of damage activation function Fm is less
εm = ε elas
+ε plas
σm =
̃ C0m elas
:ε (1)
m m m
than zero without damage and it equals to the zero once damage occurs.
It can be seen from experiments [23,24] that the polymer matrix The loading function is consistent with the form of paraboloidal yield
exhibits different plastic behavior under different loadings. Thus, an criterion, while the stress is the failure strength, given by:
accurate model to characterize the elastic-plastic behavior of polymer √̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
( ) ̅
matrix is necessary. Some constitutive models have been proposed to J 2 + Xm,c − Xm,t ̃I 1
3̃
φm = (8)
characterize the plastic behavior for polymer matrix, such as von Mises Xm,c Xm,t
model, Drucker-Prager model, Mohr-Coulomb model. Von Mises model
cannot describe the asymmetric plastic behavior between tension and where Xm,t and Xm,c are the tensile and compressive failure strengths for
compression, and the convergence of Drucker-Prager model and the polymer matrix. Once the damage occurs in polymer matrix, an
Mohr-Coulomb model is poor due to the singularity of yield surface. The exponential evolution law is applied to describe the softening behavior
paraboloidal model [24] seems to be a good model to characterize the and a scalar damage variable dm is introduced to characterize the
asymmetric plastic behavior and guarantee a good computational damage process, as shown in Fig. 3(a). The damage evolution law for
convergence. Thus, the paraboloidal yield criterion is applied to polymer matrix is defined as [25]:
describe the different plastic and damage behavior of tension and 1
compression for epoxy resin, given by: dm = 1 − exp[Am (1 − rm )] (9)
rm
( ) ( )
σ m , σm,t , σm,c = 6̃J 2 + 2 σm,c − σm,t ̃I 1 − 2σ m,c σm,t
f ̃ (2) where Am is the coefficient of damage softening. The results of damage
simulation significantly depend on the mesh size. To avoid the de­
where f is the function of yield surface. σ m,t and σm,c are the yield stresses pendency of mesh size, damage softening coefficient Am is regularized as
for tension and compression, respectively. ̃I1 is the first invariant of a function of mesh size. Based on the Bažant crack band model [26], the
effective stress tensor, ̃ J2 is the second invariant of deviatoric effective dissipated energy per unit volume gm is expressed as a function of
stress tensor. A non-associated flow law is used to avoid the increase of fracture toughness Gm and element characteristic length l*, given by:
volume under hydrostatic pressure and determine flow direction, which ∫∞
is consistent with Ref. [24], given by: gm =
∂G ∂dm Gm
dr = * (10)
√̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅ ∂dm ∂rm m l
1
9 1 − 2νm,p 2
g = σ2m + p (3)
2 1 + νm,p where G is the Helmholtz free energy of polymer matrix which is split
√̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅ into elastic Ge and plastic Gp contributions. The elastic part is affected by
where g is the plastic potential function; σ m = 3̃ J2 is the von Mises the damage variable and the plastic part is related to the plastic hard­
ening process, given by:
equivalent stress, p = 1/3I1 is the hydrostatic pressure, and vp is plastic
̃

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C. He et al. Composites Science and Technology 218 (2022) 109139

ABAQUS. Its constitutive relation combines the interface displacement

jump and traction force, as shown in Fig. 3(b). The initial constitutive
relation is linear elastic and the expression of the damaged constitutive
relation are as follows:
{ {
(1 − di )Kn δn , δn ≥ 0
tn =
Kn δn , δn < 0 (12)
ts(t) = (1 − di )Ks(t) δs(t)

where di is the scalar damage variable to characterize the interface

failure. ti is the traction force vector and δi is the interface displacement
jump vector, with the subscript n for normal direction and s(t) for

Table 2
Material parameters for epoxy matrix [24].
Em (MPa) vm vp σ0m,t (MPa) σ0m,c (MPa) Ht (MPa)

3760 0.39 0.3 29 67 67

Hc (MPa) nt nc Xm,c (MPa) Xm,t (MPa) Gm (N/mm)

58 170 150 124 94 0.09

Fig. 2. Comparison among the established constitutive model for epoxy resin,
Melro’s model [24] and the experiments [24].
Table 3
Material properties of interface [23].
σ2m,11 + σ 2m,22 + σ 2m,33
νm ( )
G= − σ m,11 σm,22 + σ m,22 σm,33 + σm,33 σm,11 σ0n (MPa) τ0s (τ0t ) Kn (MPa/ Ks(t) GCn (mJ/ GCs (mJ/ ηBK
2(1 − dm )Em Em
(MPa) mm) (MPa/ mm2) mm2)
( ) (11)
mm)
(1 + νm ) σ 2m,12 + σ 2m,23 + σ2m,31
+ + Gp (εp ) 50 70 108 108 0.002 0.006 1.2
(1 − dm )Em
Based on the established method, the damage softening coefficient
Am can be obtained by solving the integration in Eq. (10) combined with
the definition of Helmholtz free energy in Eq. (11). The proposed elastic-
plastic damage model for matrix is implemented by the user subroutine
UMAT in the commercial FE software ABAQUS. The plastic model is
same with the paraboloidal model developed by Melro et al. [24] and
the damage model is implemented using the Eqs. 7–11. The comparison
among the established model, Melro’s model [24] and experiments [24]
is presented in Fig. 2 and it can be found that the established model can
characterize the different plastic and failure behavior of matrix under
tension, compression and shear. All the material parameters for polymer
matrix are listed in Table 2, which are taken from Ref. [24]. More details
about elastic-plastic damage model and numerical implementation can
be found in previous work [25,27].
The interface between fiber and matrix is modeled by the cohesive
model, which is implemented by the zero-thickness cohesive element in
Fig. 4. Finite element model of the microscale RVE.

Fig. 3. The damage evolution law for the (a) polymer matrix and (b) cohesive interface.

4
C. He et al. Composites Science and Technology 218 (2022) 109139

Fig. 5. Three groups of UD RVEs with different fiber radius and shape deviations and matrix voids.

quadratic nominal traction criterion, given by:

Table 4
( )2 ( )2 ( )2
Four loading conditions. 〈σ n 〉 σs σt
+ 0 + 0 =1 (13)
Load case Far-field strain tensor Diagram σn 0 σs σt
Transverse tension ε0 = e 2 ⊗ e 2
where σ0n , σ0s and σ 0t are the normal, in-plane shear and out-plane shear
Transverse compression ε0 = − e 2 ⊗ e 2 strengths of interface, respectively. These values are listed in Table 3,
Transverse shear ε0 = e 2 ⊗ e 3 + e 3 ⊗ e 2 which are taken from the Ref. [23]. Once the damage initiation criterion
is satisfied, the stress of interface will decrease linearly to zero with the
Longitudinal shear ε0 = e 1 ⊗ e 2 + e 2 ⊗ e 1
scalar damage variable increasing from zero to one. The
Benzeggagh-Kenane (BK) damage evolution law is used to account for
the dependence of the fracture energy on the mixed mode, given by:
tangential directions. The normal compression cannot lead to the ( )ηBK
interface debonding due to the crack closing. The interface stiffness for (
GC = GCn + GCs − GCn
) 2Gs
(14)
normal (Kn) and tangential (Ks(t)) directions are set to be 108 MPa/mm Gn + 2Gs
which is large enough to ensure continuity for displacement and avoid
the interface embedding. The damage initiation is determined by the where Gs and Gn are the shear and normal fracture energies, respectively.

Fig. 6. Comparison between SEM observation [12,15] and FE simulation for transverse tension and compression of UD composites.

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C. He et al. Composites Science and Technology 218 (2022) 109139

Fig. 7. Comparison between SEM observation [13,14] and FE simulation for transverse shear and longitudinal shear of UD composites.

Fig. 8. Stress-strain curves comparison of established model and other’s model [23].

Fig. 9. Predicted failure modes for UD RVEs with different deviations of fiber radius.

GC is the corresponding critical fracture energy which needs to be
determined by experiments. ηВΚ is the Benzeggagh-Kenane (BK)
parameter. These parameters of interface are also listed in Table 3.
2.2. Microstructure generation
The computational micromechanics method is developed to
investigate the effects of fiber radius, fiber shape deviations and matrix
voids on the strengths and mechanisms of UD composites. A represen­
tative volume element (RVE) with several random fibers embedded in
matrix is used to characterize the transverse shape of UD composites. In
this work, the fiber volume fraction is set to be 50%. With the increasing
of size for UD RVE, more elements are needed to discretize the FE model
which would exceed the memory of computer during calculation.

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C. He et al. Composites Science and Technology 218 (2022) 109139

Fig. 10. Predicted stress-strain curves for UD RVEs with different deviations of fiber radius.

Fig. 11. Predicted failure modes of UD RVEs with different eccentricities of elliptical fibers.

Fig. 12. Predicted stress-strain curves of UD RVEs with different eccentricities of elliptical fibers.

Therefore, the size of RVE for UD composites should be balanced that it
should be large enough to capture the fundamental failure mechanisms
under various loadings and also conduct an efficient simulation with less
computational cost. The effect of RVE size on the simulated results and
computational costs has been investigated in a parametric study that the
width of idealized RVE should be more than five times larger than the
fiber diameter (L/d ≥ 5) [28]. Besides, several similar numerical studies
for UD RVEs with different fiber shapes and matrix voids have been
conducted [16,20], in which the width of RVE is about 8 times the fiber
diameter. As shown in Fig. 4, a RVE with a width of 64 μm is established
which is large enough to capture the fundamental fracture mechanisms,
such as interface debonding, matrix shear yielding. The diameter of
carbon fiber is modeled as 7 μm for carbon fiber and the UD RVE con­
tains about 56 fibers. The thickness of UD RVE along the fiber axial
direction is 5 μm.
To evaluate the effects of manufacturing uncertainties, three

7
C. He et al.
Fig. 13. Predicted failure modes of UD RVEs with different contents of matrix voids.
Fig. 14. Predicted stress-strain curves for UD RVEs with different contents of matrix voids.
different groups of RVEs with random fiber are modeled in this work as
shown in Fig. 5, including the UD RVEs with different deviations of fiber
diameter (a-c), different eccentricities of elliptical fibers (d-f) and
different matrix void contents (g-i). The fiber volume fractions are set to
50% in these RVEs. The center coordinates of fiber are randomly
generated based on the nearest neighbor algorithm (NNA) [9]. There is
no contact between the fibers in RVE and the distance between two
adjacent fibers is greater than 0.1 df to avoid the mesh distortion during
meshing. The fibers which intersects the edges of RVE are com­
plemented on the opposite sides to guarantee the periodicity of UD RVE
on the opposite boundaries. In order to evaluate the effects of fiber
diameter deviation, three UD RVEs with different lognormal distribu­
tions for fiber diameter are generated, which have been demonstrated
from the real micrograph that the carbon fiber diameter conforms to the
lognormal distribution with a variance of 0.2 [9]. Here, a parametric
study of fiber diameter deviation with three cases is conducted, pre­
sented in Fig. 5(a–c). In Fig. 5(a), the diameter keeps a constant and its
value equals to 7 μm. In Fig. 5(b) and (c), the average values of fiber
diameter are 7 μm and the variances of lognormal distribution are 0.25
and 0.5, respectively. The details of RVE modeling are: firstly, a list of
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Composites Science and Technology 218 (2022) 109139
fiber diameters is generated randomly to approximate the analytical
form of lognormal distribution and generate the randomly distributed
carbon fibers using Matlab. Then, a python script in ABAQUS is used to
generate the geometric models of UD RVE. Finally, using Hypermesh to
discretize the geometric models into periodic mesh. The fiber shape with
deviation caused by manufacturing process of carbon fiber is simplified
into the ellipse as suggested by Gentz et al. [6], and the eccentricity of
elliptical carbon fiber is about 0.7 in real microscopy. In this paper, a
parametric study of elliptical carbon fibers with three eccentricities (i.e.
0, 0.72 and 0.95) is conducted, presented in Fig. 5(d–f). The RVE
modeling for UD RVE with elliptical fiber is same with the UD RVE with
fiber diameter deviation. Besides, the orientation of ellipse is randomly
assigned which is consistent with real microscopy [6]. Experiments by
Hernández [18] and Little et al. [29] have shown that the voids in
composites were oriented and elongated along the fiber direction. These
observations have also shown that the diameters of 45% voids are less
than 50 μm and 20% voids are less than 20 μm, with a cylindrical shape.
The void contents in CFRP composites are within the range of 0.2%–10%
which are measured from experiments [30]. Based on experimental
observations and statistical distribution, a parametric study of void
C. He et al. Composites Science and Technology 218 (2022) 109139

Fig. 15. Local progressive elastic-plastic damage behavior of UD RVE under transverse compression.

Fig. 16. The effects of manufacturing uncertainties on the strengths of UD composites.

content is conducted to evaluate their effects on the strengths and failure
mechanisms of UD composites and the void contents are set as 2.5%,
5.0% and 7.5%, respectively. Here, the diameter of void is restricted to
be smaller than the fiber diameter. To avoid the difficulties during
meshing process, the matrix voids are realized by randomly deleting the
elements with approximate cylindrical areas and the void size ranges
from 0.8 μm to 3.2 μm.
These RVEs are discrete into hexahedra first-order elements with
reduced integration (C3D8R, in ABAQUS). However, because of the
random distribution for fibers, the meshing would be difficult when two
adjacent fibers are too close, so the wedge elements (C3D6) are used
when necessary. The mesh discretization is implemented in the Hyper­
mesh software to generate a periodic mesh, i.e. the mesh nodes between
parallel planes correspond to each other. The fiber-matrix interface is
dispersed by the zero thickness cohesive elements (COH3D6). Finally,
the microstructure of UD composites is discretized into the finite
element model and the discrete RVEs contain approximately 185562
elements and 214830 nodes in average.
2.3. Boundary conditions and simulation process
The analysis is based on the RVE so that the periodic boundary

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conditions (PBCs) need be applied to satisfy the continuity of forces and
the compatibility of displacements. The PBCs are implemented by the
linear multipoint constraint equation between the opposite-facial nodes
and master nodes. The displacement of the opposite boundary faces in
RVE can written as [31]:
*
uj+ j+
i = εik xk + ui
(15)
uj−i = εik xj−k + u*i
where the opposite faces are denoted as superscript “j+” and “j-“. εik and
xk are the average strain and the Cartesian coordinate of the RVE. u*i is
the periodic displacement on the boundary faces and its value is same on
the opposite parallel surfaces in the RVE. The Eq. (15) can also be
written as:
( j+ ) et al. [23]. In this reference, a UD RVE with 60% fiber volume fraction is
uj+ j−
i − ui = εik xk − xk
j−
= εik Δxjk (16)
j the fiber radius, respectively. For quantitative validation, a similar UD
where Δxk is a constant between each pair of surfaces. The average strain
εik is linked with the displacement of the master node in PBCs. Once the
εik is given, the Eq. (16) can be realized by establishing the constraint
equations of nodes in the finite element analysis software ABAQUS. A
python script is written for this purpose and more details can be found in
Ref. [32].
An analysis step in which the temperature of every nodes is changed
from curing temperature (180 ◦ C) to room temperature (20 ◦ C) is
adopted to simulate the thermal residual stress before mechanical
loading. The material parameters of the constituents including stiffness,
strengths, thermal expansion coefficients, etc. Are supposed to be
temperature-independent during the first thermal analysis step. In the
second step, a homogenous strain state is applied to the RVE by adding
the displacement on the master nodes which has been established in the
periodic boundary conditions. Due to the master nodes are coupled with
the nodes on parallel planes, the load on the master node is equivalent to
the load on the RVE so that the displacement-load curves of the master
nodes can be transformed into stress-strain curves of different loadings.
Finally, the corresponding stress-strain curves and failure mechanisms
of the UD composites are obtained.
3. Mechanical behaviors prediction of UD composites
After applying the PBC, four different types of loadings (i.e., trans­
verse tension, compression, shear and longitudinal shear) are applied to
the UD RVEs by adding the displacement to the master nodes. The types
and diagrams of the loadings are shown in Table 4. For each type of
loading, the predicted failure modes of UD RVEs are presented. The
homogenized stress-strain curves in same group are presented into one
figure to investigate the effects of the fiber radius and fiber shape de­
viations and of matrix void content.
3.1. Qualitative validation of failure modes
The predicted failure modes of UD RVEs under different loadings
need to be compared with the SEM observation to validate the accuracy
of established model. Here, the RVE (a) in Fig. 5 under transverse ten­
sion, compression, shear and longitudinal shear is analyzed by the
established framework. The comparison between SEM observation and
FE simulation for transverse tension and compression is shown in Fig. 6.
It can be seen from the SEM figure that the interface debonding is the
major failure mode for transverse tension and the FE simulation accu­
rately captures the similar failure mechanism. For transverse compres­
sion, the matrix failure leads to a crack band with an inclination of 56◦ ,
which is also observed in Fig. 6(b). The comparison between SEM
observation and FE simulation for transverse and longitudinal shear is
presented in Fig. 7. For transverse shear, the SEM observation and FE
results show a good agreement with each other, in which the interface
debonding and matrix failure are the major failure modes. As shown in
10
Composites Science and Technology 218 (2022) 109139
SEM in Fig. 7(b), the shear failure of matrix leads to a vertical crack
band, and the simulation also exhibits a similar failure modes. In
conclusion, the proposed computational framework can accurately
capture the failure modes of UD composites under various loadings. A
quantitative calibration of stress-strain curves will be presented in next
sub-section.
3.2. Quantitative validation of stress-strain curves
After the qualitative validation of failure modes for UD composites, a
quantitative validation of stress-strain curves is needed to address the
accuracy of established model. Due to the lack of material properties of
constituents in above experiments, the stress-strain curves predicted by
established model are compared with numerical data, given by Melro
established and the width and thickness are modeled as 10 × and 0.3 ×
RVE is established with the same fiber volume fraction, width and
thickness, as shown in Fig. 8. Besides, the material parameters for car­
bon fiber, epoxy resin and interface keep in consistent in simulation. The
stress-strain curves comparison of established model and Melro’s model
is shown in Fig. 8. It can be found that the stress-strain curves predicted
by this paper agree well with the existing numerical data. After the
qualitative validation of failure modes and the quantitative validation of
stress-strain curves, the proposed computational model can be used to
evaluate the effects of fiber radius and fiber shape deviations and of
matrix void content.
3.3. Effects of the deviations for fiber radius
The Fig. 9 shows the predicted failure modes of RVEs with different
deviations of fiber diameter. The predicted stress-strain curves of these
RVEs for the given loading conditions are presented in Fig. 10. For
transverse tension, a crack propagates along the direction perpendicular
to the loading direction, and the interface debonding and the matrix
failure near interface are the main failure modes. The tensile strength of
interface is lower than that of matrix so that interface debonding firstly
appears and then the matrix near the debonded interface is damaged.
With the increasing of fiber radius deviation, the interface around the
large-sized fiber would be more likely to damage due to a higher number
of nearest neighbor fibers and a larger interface area that is more prone
to mode I propagation. Thus, the transverse tensile strengths of UD RVE
decrease gradually with the increasing of fiber radius deviation. For
transverse compression, a 56◦ inclined crack band in matrix phase is
observed and the matrix shear failure is the major failure mode. The
compressive properties of UD RVEs are determined by matrix so that the
fiber radius deviation does not significantly affect them. The interface
debonding and matrix damage are dominating failure modes for trans­
verse shear. With the increase of fiber diameter deviation, the interface
debonding is more likely to appear due to the stress concentration so
that the transverse shear strength is reduced. For longitudinal shear, a
matrix crack band is observed in the UD RVE, while there is no
debonding at the interface. The longitudinal shear failure modes for
three RVEs are similar which are determined by the matrix so that the
strengths are nearly equal. The strength values of UD RVEs with
different deviations of carbon radius are presented in Fig. 16(a).
3.4. Effects of the deviations for fiber shape
The Fig. 11 presents the predicted failure modes of UD RVEs with
different eccentricities of elliptical fibers and the predicted stress-strain
curves for different loading conditions are presented in Fig. 12. It can be
found from the figure that the UD RVEs with elliptical fiber shape exhibit
a better mechanical performance than that with circular fibers. For
transverse tension, the interface bebonding and matrix damage lead to a
through crack which is perpendicular to the loading direction for the UD
C. He et al.
RVEs with circular fibers. For the UD RVEs with elliptical fibers, the axis
orientation of ellipse is random which would prevent the propagation of
crack. With the increasing of loading, the matrix near the non-through
cracks would endure more loading which makes the transverse tensile
strength is higher than that of UD RVEs with circular fibers. For trans­
verse compression, the UD RVEs with elliptical fibers are more likely to
prevent the expansion of crack so that its compressive strength is
increasing. With the increase of eccentricity, the major failure mode for
transverse shear is changed from interface debonding to matrix failure
and the matrix phase can withstand higher loadings than the interface,
so the transverse shear strength is increasing. For the longitudinal shear,
the matrix phase of RVE with elliptical fibers would endure higher
loadings as the random orientation of elliptical fibers would prevent the
propogation of matrix crack. The strength values of UD RVEs with
different eccentricities of elliptical fibers are presented in Fig. 16(b).
3.5. Effects of matrix void contents
The Fig. 13 shows the predicted failure modes of RVEs with different
matrix void contents, and the predicted stress-strain curves of these
RVEs for different loading conditions are presented in Fig. 14. The
matrix void has a significantly detrimental effects on the strengths of UD
composites and it may lead to a different failure modes for different void
contents. For the transverse tension, the failure of UD RVE with 2.5%
matrix void content is mainly caused by the interface debonding, while
the major failure mode of UD RVE with 7.5% matrix void content is the
tensile failure of matrix. The stress concentration near the void lowers
the load bearing capacity of matrix below that of interface. For the
transverse compression, the major failure modes of RVEs with 2.5% and
5.0% matrix void content are the matrix shear failure with a inclined
crack band. However, the crack bands of RVE with 7.5% matrix void
content are connected by the matrix voids. For the transverse shear, the
interface debonding gradually disappears and the matrix shear failure
becomes the major failure mode. For the longitudinal shear, the crack
band in matrix propagates along the matrix voids. The strength values of
UD RVEs with different matrix void contents are presented in Fig. 16(c).
The progressive elastic-plastic damage behavior of UD RVE with
5.0% void content under transverse compression is shown in Fig. 15.
Three strain states are selected to show the local equivalent plastic strain
and von-Mises stress fields, marked as I, II and III in the stress-strain
curve. It can be found from the figure that the stress concentration
near the void makes the matrix phase more likely to undergo the plastic
deformation and damage behavior. With the increase of loading, the UD
RVE gradually loses the bearing capacity and exhibits a crack band in
matrix phase.
4. Concluding remarks
In this paper, a computational micromechanics framework is devel­
oped to quantitatively evaluate the effects of manufacturing un­
certainties on the strengths and failure mechanisms of UD composites, i.
e. the carbon fiber radius and fiber shape deviations and matrix void
contents. The simulated results in this paper show that the
manufacturing uncertainties play an important role in the mechanical
properties of UD composites. Several interesting results are found in this
study, including:
1. The deviation of carbon fiber radius will reduce the transverse tensile
and shear strengths of UD composites, which are mainly determined
by the properties of interface. However, it does not significantly
affect the transverse compressive and longitudinal shear properties.
2. UD composites with the elliptical fibers exhibit a better mechanical
performance than that with the circular fibers. The random distri­
bution of elliptical fibers prevents the crack propagation and makes
the UD RVE withstand higher loadings.
11
Composites Science and Technology 218 (2022) 109139
3. Matrix voids have the significantly detrimental effect on the
strengths of UD composites, and the different void contents would
lead to the different failure modes. The stress concentration near the
matrix voids makes the matrix easier to undergo the plastic defor­
mation and damage behavior and leads to the decrease of strength.
Author statement
Chunwang He: Investigation, Methodology, Writing-Original draft.
Jingran Ge: Supervision, Writing-review & editing, Funding acquisition.
Xiaofei Cao: Software. Yanfei Chen: Formal analysis. Haosen Chen: Re­
sources. Daining Fang: Supervision, Project administration.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
This work is supported by the National Key Research and Develop­
ment of China (2018YFA0702804), the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (11802018, U20B2002 and 12172045) and Beijing
Institute of Technology Research Fund Program for Young Scholars. In
addition, the first author acknowledges the financial support of the
China Scholarship Council (CSC) and Graduate Technological Innova­
tion Project of Beijing Institute of Technology to enable this work.
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