Published papers

Process simulation of fiber reinforced composite materials is an important research theme for the development of low-cost and advanced functional composite materials. This paper aims at the simulation of deep-drawing process of knitted fiber reinforced thermoplastics and its verification. The feature of the simulation is that the large deformation of the knitted microstructures can be traced everywhere in the deep-drawn product. The homogenization theory is applied to analyze the micro-macro coupled behaviors of the knitted fabric composite material. By employing a simplified nonlinear computational algorithm, the deep-drawing simulation was carried out on a personal computer. The predicted largely deformed microstructures were compared with the experimental results. The numerical results and experimental ones agreed quite well. This deep-drawing simulation requires us to prepare only the mechanical properties of the constituents, while it provides us all the necessary quantities such as the deformation, strain, stress and stiffness from both microscopic and macroscopic standpoints. © 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

The finite element mesh superposition method is applied to the two-dimensional crack problem of composite materials. The microscopic heterogeneity involved in the composite materials is modeled by the fixed grid model. On this global mesh, a local mesh that considers the local crack is superimposed without taking care of the matching of nodes and elements of both meshes. The use of the fixed grid model for the global mesh can reduce the time and efforts for the mesh generation to express the complex heterogeneous microstructures. Also it makes the computation and the implementation of the finite element mesh superposition method very easy. The accuracy was verified by comparing with the theory and the calculation by the conventional fine mesh.

A microstructure-based computational approach is taken to predict the permeability tensor of woven fabric composites, which is a key parameter in resin transfer moulding (RTM) simulation of polymer-matrix composites. An asymptotic homogenization theory is employed to evaluate the permeability from both macro- and microscopic standpoints with the help of the finite-element method (FEM). This theory allows us to study the relation between microscopic woven architecture and macroscopic permeability based on the method of two-scale asymptotic expansions. While the fluid velocity is introduced for Stokes flow microscopically, the macroscopic one is for seepage flow with the Darcy's law. The latter can be characterized for arbitrary configurations of unit microstructures that are analyzed for the former under the assumption of the periodicity. After discussing the validity of this approach, we present a typical numerical example to discuss the permeability characteristics of plain weave fabrics undergoing shear deformation in the preforming in comparison with the underformed one. Another notable feature of the proposed method is that the correlation between the macroscopic behaviors and the microscopic ones can be analyzed, which is important to analyze and/or design the RTM process. Hence, it is also demonstrated that the microscopic velocity field evaluated with macroscopic pressure gradient provides important information about the flow in RTM processes. © 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Multi-scale analysis using the asymptotic homogenization method is becoming a matter of concern for microstructural design and analysis of advanced heterogeneous materials. One of the problems is the lack of the experimental verification of the multi-scale analysis. Hence, it is applied to the porous alumina with needle-like pores to compare the predicted homogenized properties with the experimental result. The complex and random microstructure was modeled three-dimensionally with the help of the digital image-based modeling technique. An appropriate size of the unit microstructure model was investigated. The predicted elastic properties agreed quite well with the measured values. Next, a four-point bending test was simulated and finally the microscopic stress distribution was predicted. However, it was very hard to evaluate the calculated microscopic stress quantitatively. Therefore, a numerical algorithm to help understanding the three-dimensional and complex stress distribution in the random porous microstructure is proposed. An original histogram display of the stress distribution is shown to be effective to evaluate the stress concentration in the porous materials. © 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

To analyse the macroscopic and microscopic behaviours of heterogeneous materials and components, a multi-scale computational method is studied. Although asymptotic homogenization theory has been the main tool during the last decade to solve various multi-scale problems, the assumption of the periodicity of the microscopic unit cell and the incapability of considering the scale effect have resulted in the limitations to this theory's applications. These problems should be overcome because advanced materials are often used as joint or laminated components and the interface crack problem must be analysed. For this sake, a novel multi-scale finite element method is proposed that uses the enhanced mesh superposition method together with the asymptotic homogenization theory. The finite element mesh superposition method uses the global mesh and the local mesh that is superimposed arbitrarily onto the global mesh. The enhanced method allows the adoption of different constitutive laws for the two meshes. The advantage of the homogenization theory to predict the homogenized material model accurately based on the complex microstructure is still utilized. The homogenized material model is used for the global mesh, whilst the microscopic heterogeneity and the crack are considered in the local mesh with the material properties of the constituents. The formulation, modeling strategy, implementation and numerical accuracy of the proposed method is described. A porous ceramic is studied in the numerical example.

This paper studies a three-scale computational method that simultaneously considers the microstructure of heterogeneous materials, the macroscopic component, and the fracture origin such as interface or crack. The synergetic application of the asymptotic homogenization and mesh superposition methods to problems with strong scale mixing is emphasized. The scale gap between the microstructure and the component is very large, but the fracture origin is at the middle scale between them. The overall behavior is analyzed by means of the homogenization of the heterogeneity expressed by the unit cell model, while the fracture origin is modeled directly with the microscopic heterogeneity by another microscopic mesh. The microscopic mesh is superposed onto the macroscopic mesh. This mesh superposition method can analyze the non-periodic microscopic stress at the crack tip under a non-uniform macroscopic strain field with high gradient. Hence, the present three-scale method can accurately focus on the behaviors at arbitrary scale differently from the conventional hierarchical model. A demonstrative example of porous thin film on a substrate with an interface crack was solved and the microscopic stress was analyzed at the crack tip considering the random dispersion of pores and the high gradient of macroscopic strain field. To solve the large-scale 3D problem with approximately 80,000 solid elements, a renumbering technique and the out-of-core skyline solver was employed. © 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The continuous fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites, such as textile composites, have many attractive properties and functions and they are used widely nowadays in industrial applications. The important point in the design and manufacturing is that the composites as well as the reinforcing textiles undergo large deformation during thermoforming, which is much influential on the overall properties. Hence, the large deformation characteristics must be investigated at thermoforming temperature. For this sake, the digital image-based measurement technique of large strain distribution is developed. It is applicable to arbitrary complex shaped components with the help of 3D-CAD. As the large strain definition, Biot's strain is adopted that is calculated by the polar decomposition of the deformation gradient tensor based on continuum mechanics. The developed strain measurement technique is applied to the deep-drawing of aramid rib-knitted fabric reinforced polypropylene composites. The comparison between rib and plain-knitted fabrics reinforced composites is studied and many differences are found. The large deformation characteristics are also investigated from microscopic point of view under uniaxial tension at thermoforming temperature. © 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Two-dimensional finite element models were created for a three-unit posterior fixed partial denture. An experimental resin-impregnated glass fiber was used as the fiber-reinforced composite (FRC) for the framework. The FRC was evaluated using varying combinations of position and thickness, alongside with two types of veneering composite. A load of 50 N simulating bite force was applied at the pontic in a vertical direction. Tensile stress was examined using a finite element analysis program. Model without FRC showed tensile stress concentrations within the veneering composite on the cervical side of the pontic - from the connector area to the bottom of the pontic. Model with FRC at the top of the pontic had almost the same stress distribution as the model without FRC. Models with 0.4-0.8 mm thick FRC positioned at the bottom of the pontic showed maximum tensile stresses reduced by 4-19% within the veneering composite.

This study is focused on the multi-scale modelling strategy for complex and heterogeneous microstructures of real materials by automatic image-based modelling and finite element mesh superposition method. The synergetic application of the conventional asymptotic homogenization method and the authors' mesh superposition method has been proposed to obtain the microscopic responses under high gradient of macroscopic fields at the macroscopic crack tip and/or interface, for instance. For complex and random microstructures, automatic image-based voxel meshing by means of x-ray CT is commonly required; however, it cannot always adapt to the mathematical theory of microscopic modelling in the mesh superposition method. Therefore, a modelling technique for mesh refinement is proposed in this paper using additional elements for insulation in consideration of the theoretical background of the mesh superposition method. In this paper, we provide the modelling procedure and its theoretical consideration of mesh refinement for flexible modelling of real materials. To demonstrate the technique, a numerical example of a porous ceramic component with random microstructure and macroscopic crack is illustrated. © 2006 IOP Publishing Ltd.

Finite element analysis was performed to evaluate stress distribution in maxillary central incisors treated endodontically and restored with a post and an all-ceramic crown. Tensile stress at tooth root was analyzed using two-dimensional finite element models with different post diameters and lengths. One post length was 1/3 of the root (short), while the other was 2/3 of the root (long); one post diameter was 1/3 of the root (narrow), while the other was 2/3 of the root (wide). The following combinations were used for posts and cores: gold alloy cast post and core, commercial stainless steel post and resin core, and fiber post and resin core. Results showed that the fiber post produced less stress on the root dentin around the post tip than did the metal posts. This finding thus suggested that to reduce the stresses that cause root fracture, a long, thin fiber post should be used.