Computational micromechanics of the effect of fibre misalignment on the longitudinal compression and shear properties of UD fibre-reinforced plastics

In this paper, 3D representative volume elements (RVEs) of UD carbon/epoxy composites are generated, taking into consideration a realistic misalignment of the fibres. To construct the RVE, a 2D distribution of the fibre sections is considered and then extruded in the longitudinal direction. Experimental measurements to the misalignments are modelled by perturbing the positions of the control points defined on the centreline of each fibre,...