Fiber Orientation Tensors and Mean Field Homogenization: Application to Sheet Molding Compound

Effective mechanical properties of fiber-reinforced composites strongly depend on the microstructure, including the fibers\u27 orientation. Studying this dependency, we identify the variety of fiber orientation tensors up to fourth-order using irreducible tensors and material symmetry. The case of planar fiber orientation tensors, relevant for sheet molding compound, is presented completely. Consequences for the reconstruction of fiber distributions and mean field homogenization are presented

Variety of fiber orientation tensors

Fiber orientation tensors are established descriptors of fiber orientation states in (thermo-)mechanical material models for fiber-reinforced composites. In this paper, the variety of fourth-order orientation tensors is analyzed and specified by parameterizations and admissible parameter ranges. The combination of parameterizations and admissible parameter ranges allows for studies on the mechanical response of different fiber architectures. Linear invariant decomposition with focus on index symmetry leads to a novel compact hierarchical parameterization, which highlights the central role of the isotropic state. Deviation from the isotropic state is given by a triclinic harmonic tensor with simplified structure in the orientation coordinate system, which is spanned by the second-order orientation tensor. Material symmetries reduce the number of independent parameters. The requirement of positive-semi-definiteness defines admissible ranges of independent parameters. Admissible parameter ranges for transversely isotropic and planar cases are given in a compact closed form and the orthotropic variety is visualized and discussed in detail. Sets of discrete unit vectors, leading to selected orientation states, are given

Fiber orientation distributions based on planar fiber orientation tensors of fourth order

Fiber orientation tensors represent averaged measures of fiber orientations inside a microstructure. Although, orientation-dependent material models are commonly used to describe the mechanical properties of representative microstructure, the influence of changing or differing microstructure on the material response is rarely investigated systematically for directional measures which are more precise than second-order fiber orientation tensors. For the special case of planar orientation distributions, a set of admissible fiber orientation tensors of fourth-order is known. Fiber orientation distributions reconstructed from given orientation tensors are of interest both for numerical averaging schemes in material models and visualization of the directional information itself. Focusing on the special case of planar orientations, this paper draws the geometric picture of fiber orientation distribution functions reconstructed from fourth-order fiber orientation tensors. The developed methodology can be adopted to study the dependence of material models on planar fourth-order fiber orientation tensors. Within the set of admissible fiber orientation tensors, a subset of distinct tensors is identified. Advantages and disadvantages of the description of planar orientation states in two- or three-dimensional tensor frameworks are demonstrated. Reconstruction of fiber orientation distributions is performed by truncated Fourier series and additionally by deploying a maximum entropy method. The combination of the set of admissible and distinct fiber orientation tensors and reconstruction methods leads to the variety of reconstructed fiber orientation distributions. This variety is visualized by arrangements of polar plots within the parameter space of fiber orientation tensors. This visualization shows the influence of averaged orientation measures on reconstructed orientation distributions and can be used to study any simulation method or quantity which is defined as a function of planar fourth-order fiber orientation tensors

Learning hyperelastic anisotropy from data via a tensor basis neural network

Anisotropy in the mechanical response of materials with microstructure is common and yet is difficult to assess and model. To construct accurate response models given only stress-strain data, we employ classical representation theory, novel neural network layers, and L1 regularization. The proposed tensor-basis neural network can discover both the type and orientation of the anisotropy and provide an accurate model of the stress response. The method is demonstrated with data from hyperelastic materials with off-axis transverse isotropy and orthotropy, as well as materials with less well-defined symmetries induced by fibers or spherical inclusions. Both plain feed-forward neural networks and input-convex neural network formulations are developed and tested. Using the latter, a polyconvex potential can be established, which, by satisfying the growth condition can guarantee the existence of boundary value problem solutions.Comment: 36 pages, 20 figure

On the Phase Space of Fourth-Order Fiber-Orientation Tensors

Fiber-orientation tensors describe the relevant features of the fiber-orientation distribution compactly and are thus ubiquitous in injection-molding simulations and subsequent mechanical analyses. In engineering applications to date, the second-order fiber-orientation tensor is the basic quantity of interest, and the fourth-order fiber-orientation tensor is obtained via a closure approximation. Unfortunately, such a description limits the predictive capabilities of the modeling process significantly, because the wealth of possible fourth-order fiber-orientation tensors is not exploited by such closures, and the restriction to second-order fiber-orientation tensors implies artifacts. Closures based on the second-order fiber-orientation tensor face a fundamental problem – which fourth-order fiber-orientation tensors can be realized? In the literature, only necessary conditions for a fiber-orientation tensor to be connected to a fiber-orientation distribution are found. In this article, we show that the typically considered necessary conditions, positive semidefiniteness and a trace condition, are also sufficient for being a fourth-order fiber-orientation tensor in the physically relevant case of two and three spatial dimensions. Moreover, we show that these conditions are not sufficient in higher dimensions. The argument is based on convex duality and a celebrated theorem of D. Hilbert (1888) on the decomposability of positive and homogeneous polynomials of degree four. The result has numerous implications for modeling the flow and the resulting microstructures of fiber-reinforced composites, in particular for the effective elastic constants of such materials. Based on our findings, we show how to connect optimization problems on fourth-order fiber-orientation tensors to semi-definite programming. The proposed formulation permits to encode symmetries of the fiber-orientation tensor naturally. As an application, we look at the differences between orthotropic and general, i.e., triclinic, fiber-orientation tensors of fourth order in two and three spatial dimensions, revealing the severe limitations inherent to orthotropic closure approximations

Visualization of Tensor Fields in Mechanics

Tensors are used to describe complex physical processes in many applications. Examples include the distribution of stresses in technical materials, acting forces during seismic events, or remodeling of biological tissues. While tensors encode such complex information mathematically precisely, the semantic interpretation of a tensor is challenging. Visualization can be beneficial here and is frequently used by domain experts. Typical strategies include the use of glyphs, color plots, lines, and isosurfaces. However, data complexity is nowadays accompanied by the sheer amount of data produced by large-scale simulations and adds another level of obstruction between user and data. Given the limitations of traditional methods, and the extra cognitive effort of simple methods, more advanced tensor field visualization approaches have been the focus of this work. This survey aims to provide an overview of recent research results with a strong application-oriented focus, targeting applications based on continuum mechanics, namely the fields of structural, bio-, and geomechanics. As such, the survey is complementing and extending previously published surveys. Its utility is twofold: (i) It serves as basis for the visualization community to get an overview of recent visualization techniques. (ii) It emphasizes and explains the necessity for further research for visualizations in this context

Characterizing digital microstructures by the Minkowski‐based quadratic normal tensor

For material modeling of microstructured media, an accurate characterization of the underlying microstructure is indispensable. Mathematically speaking, the overall goal of microstructure characterization is to find simple functionals which describe the geometric shape as well as the composition of the microstructures under consideration and enable distinguishing microstructures with distinct effective material behavior. For this purpose, we propose using Minkowski tensors, in general, and the quadratic normal tensor, in particular, and introduce a computational algorithm applicable to voxel-based microstructure representations. Rooted in the mathematical field of integral geometry, Minkowski tensors associate a tensor to rather general geometric shapes, which make them suitable for a wide range of microstructured material classes. Furthermore, they satisfy additivity and continuity properties, which makes them suitable and robust for large-scale applications. We present a modular algorithm for computing the quadratic normal tensor of digital microstructures. We demonstrate multigrid convergence for selected numerical examples and apply our approach to a variety of microstructures. Strikingly, the presented algorithm remains unaffected by inaccurate computation of the interface area. The quadratic normal tensor may be used for engineering purposes, such as mean field homogenization or as target value for generating synthetic microstructures

On the dependence of orientation averaging mean field homogenization on planar fourth-order fiber orientation tensors

A comprehensive study on the influence of planar fourth-order fiber orientation tensors on effective linear elastic stiffnesses predicted by orientation averaging mean field homogenization is given. Fiber orientation states of sheet molding compound (SMC) are identified to be in most cases approximately planar. In the planar case, all possible fourth-order fiber orientation tensors are given by a minimal invariant set of structurally differing planar fourth-order fiber orientation tensors. This set defines a three-dimensional body and forms the basis for a comprehensive study on the influence of a fiber orientation distribution in terms of a fourth-order tensor on homogenized stiffnesses. The methodology of this study is the main contribution of this work and can be adopted to analyze the orientation dependence of any quantity which is a function of a planar fourth-order fiber orientation tensor. At specific points inside the set of planar fiber orientation tensors, effective stiffnesses are calculated with selected mean field homogenization schemes. These schemes are based on orientation averaging of transversely isotropic elasticity tensors following Advani and Tucker (1987), which is explicitly recast as linear invariant composition in the fiber orientation tensors of second and fourth order of Kanatani third kind. A maximum entropy reconstruction of a fiber orientation distribution function based on leading fiber orientation tensors, enables a new numerical formulation of the Advani and Tucker average for the special planar case. Polar plots of Young’s modulus and generalized bulk modulus obtained by selected homogenization schemes are arranged on two-dimensional slices within the body of admissible fiber orientation tensors, visualizing the influence of the orientation tensor on the stiffness tensor. The orientation-dependence of the generalized bulk modulus differs significantly between selected homogenizations. Restrictions on the effective anisotropic material response caused by orthotropy of closure approximations are discussed