Micromechanical modeling on the rate-dependent viscoplastic behavior of polymer composites with thermal residual stress effect

The research focuses on the effect of thermal residual stress on the rate-sensitive viscoplastic behavior of polymer matrix composites with various fiber cross-sectional shapes. Micromechanical analysis was then conducted to incorporate the inelastic deformation and thermal residual stress into the micromechanical properties of a repeating cell and obtained the macromechanical response of polymer matrix composites by using homogenization theory. The responses of AS4/Polyetheretherketone (PEEK) with circular, square, and elliptical fibers are predicted by the method above at 10-5, 10-1, and 100/s with respect to 15°, 30°, 45°, 60°, 75°, and 90° off-axis angles. The results show that the viscoplastic difference of the response for various fiber shapes becomes more evident with the increase of strain rate. The effect of thermal residual stress varying with off-axis angle is similar to the sinusoidal curve. Besides, the thermal residual stress provides the largest effect on the response with square fiber and the smallest effect on the response with elliptical fiber, which of the effect decreases with the strain rate increasing.