The modeling of inelastic composite materials with the transformation field analysis

This paper examines several aspects of numerical implementation of the transformation field analysis (TFA) method in applications to inelastic composite materials. In its general form, the method can accommodate any uniform overall loading path, inelastic constitutive equations, and micromechanical model. The response of a selected model to thermomechanical loads and local inelastic or transformation strains is found through mechanical transformation influence functions, which reflect the chosen microgeometry and the elastic response of the phases. Application of the transformation field analysis to elastic-plastic fibrous composites considers a unit cell model and incremental plasticity constitutive equations. For moderate mesh subdivisions of the unit cell, TFA proved to be more efficient than the finite-element method.