A sequential multiscale technique to evaluate the mechanical behaviour of hybrid composites containing carbon fibre and silica microparticles

This work describes a Finite Element sequential multiscale technique to evaluate hybrid composites made of fibres and particles. The representative volume element (RVE) makes use of a 3D Finite Element (FE) models constrained with different boundary conditions. The macroscale represents the geometry of ASTM specimens manufactured for experimental testing. A User Material subroutine (UMAT) reproduces the behaviour of the micromechanical properties at a larger scale. Carbon fibre-reinforced polymer (CFRP) and silica particle reinforced CFRP (CFSPRP) are experimentally evaluated under tension, compression and in-plane shear. Hand layup and vacuum bag techniques are used to produce those composites. The hybrid configuration considers 9 wt% of particles for the total mass of the matrix. Numerical results show the accuracy provided by the proposed multiscale modelling technique in predicting the elastic and inelastic responses versus the experimental results. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd