Numerical simulation of interfacial deformation and damage for a dual-phase composite with a circular cylindrical inclusion

Interfaces combine all the phases in composites and are transferring the loading between the matrix and reinforcements. Although the volume and size of the interfacial phase are far less than those of other phases, the failure of composite always first arises in the interfacial regions. Therefore the mechanical behavior of interfaces has a strong influence on the mechanical properties such as the strength and the toughness of the materials. So the establishment of the interface models for different composites is very important for more exact and reasonable description of the interface characteristics. An interface element is constructed which doesn't consider the width of the interphase, but some parameters are embedded to characterize the mechanical behavior of this special interface element which can be used in the numerical simulation for the study of the interface strength and its failure process. The attention is focused on the study of interface damage of an typical geometry of metal matrix composites, the interfacial behavior subjected to mechanical or thermal loads is investigated by using the finite element method with spring elements of damage characteristics. For a circular interface between a cylindrical inclusion and the matrix, the process of deformation, slip and damage near the damage region of interfaces is studied, the tangential and normal coupled spring interface element and one type of non-continuous four-nodes interface element coded by the authors are adopted and compared. The results of numerical simulation are shown that the appropriate determination of the constitutive parameters of the interface is essential for simulating the damage and failure.