Set-up files for the determination of homogenised elastic properties of bi-axial NCFs using periodic homogenisation of an RVE
The main file is the ’RVE set-up file’. This is the file where input data is given for the creation of the Abaqus input file and the script file used to run the simulations. The user can choose which of the elastic properties they are interested in and provide dimensions and material properties for the tows and stitches. Stitches are created by providing the start and end-coordinate for each segment. This main file uses the ’RVE functions file’ and the ’scriptfile’ to get all the information required to write the output files. It is also responsible for setting the interactions and contact between the different set and surfaces. The ’RVE functions file’ also creates the reference points that are used to apply the strains on the RVE. Finally. this file imports the constraint functions from the ’Constraint functions file’ to create the boundary conditions necessary to ensure the deformed surfaces of the RVE stay periodic. Next is the ’Constraint functions file’. This file writes all the constraints for the nodes based on the different sets that are defined by Omairey et al. [1]. Omairey et al. [1] illustrate these sets in Figure 6. The linear constraints and load boundary conditions are given in Table 1 in their work [1]. The final file is the ’script file’. The basis of this file comes directly from the work by Omairey et al. [1]. It has been adapted to work with the other files and with the model as created for the current research. The ’script file’ writes the script file that is imported in Abaqus to run the simulations based on the elastic properties that have been chosen in the ’RVE set-up file’. This is the part of the script where the strains to be applied to the RVE are set. It is also the part where the reaction forces are obtained that are used to calculate the Poison ratio’s, Young’s moduli and Shear moduli. Finally the script prints the desired results for the elastic properties and writes these to a text file. [1] Sadik L Omairey, Peter D Dunning, and Srinivas Sriramula. “Development of an ABAQUS plugin tool for periodic RVE homogenisation”. In: Engineering with Computers 35.2 (2019), pp. 567–577.