Macroscale bending large-deformation and microbuckling behavior of a unidirectional fiber-reinforced soft composite

Abstract

Due to microscale fiber microbuckling, a fiber-reinforced soft composite demonstrates large macroscale bending deformation (e.g. 10% reversible macroscale compressive strain), which is larger than that of a convenient fiber-reinforced plastics (e.g. 1.5–2% elongation/compression at break). To investigate the deformation behavior, a normalized average energy density of a fiber-reinforced soft composite laminate was derived. By using a self-consistent approach according to the minimum energy principle, a series of analytical expressions were derived by a simplified theoretical method through solving simplified partial differential equations of average energy density. Furthermore, an improved numerical calculation method was developed using the full four terms of partial differential equations of average energy density by employing the results of simplified theoretical method as initial calculating values. The dimensionless results demonstrated that the trend correlated well between those two methods, and the improved numerical method obtained more accurate results than those of the simplified theoretical method. Analytical and numerical results in normalized expressions systematically descripted the bending large-deformation behavior including position of neutral surface and critical buckling, wavelength, amplitude, shearing strain, macroscale compressive/tensile strain, buckled fiber strain, and actuation moment. To design a fiber-reinforced soft composite for use in engineering, the simplified theoretical method is used to predict trend and obtain approximate results for preliminary design, and the improved numerical method is further used to check and obtain more accurate results on detailed design stage.