Three-Dimensional Modeling of Short Fiber-Reinforced Composites with Extended Finite-Element Method

Abstract

This manuscript presents a modeling approach based on the extended finite-element method (XFEM) for modeling the mechanical behavior of three-dimensional short fiber composites including interface debonding. Short fibers are incorporated into the XFEM framework as deformable elastic two-dimensional rectangular planar inclusions. Enrichment functions account for both the presence of axial deformable fibers within the composite domain and the progressive debonding along the fiber matrix interfaces. A modeling strategy is provided that is particularly suitable for failure analysis of composites with high-aspect-ratio inclusions, in which direct numerical analysis is computationally intractable. The performance of the proposed XFEM model is numerically assessed by comparing model predictions to the direct finite-element method.