Abstract

Micromechanical analysis of an fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) lamina consisting of unequal sizes of unidirectional continuous elliptical fibers of two different materials arranged in hexagonal pattern is the present subject. The objective is to observe the change in Young’s modulii and Poisson’s ratios due to change in volume fractions and ellipse aspect ratio ‘a’ of individual fibers in a Representative Volume Element (RVE) without altering the total reinforcement share. A three-dimensional finite element model is developed and solved. Two different fiber materials (T-300 and S-Glass) are embedded in hexagonal pattern in a polymer matrix. The problem is simulated in ANSYS software. The converged results are validated using rule of mixtures which works exactly for longitudinal Young’s modulus. It is observed that the longitudinal Young’s modulus increases with increase in volume fraction of T-300 fiber and does not change due to ‘a’. The transverse modulii decrease with increase in size of T-300 fiber and affected by variation of ‘a’. Increasing in ‘a’ increases E₂ and decreases E₃.

Key words: Hybrid, fiber reinforced polymer (FRP), finite element method (FEM), micromechanics, elliptical fiber.