Development and Application of the Statistically Similar Representative Volume Element for Numerical Modelling of Multiphase Materials

Modern aerospace, automotive and construction industries rely on materials with non-homogeneous properties like composites or multiphase structures. Such materials offer a lot of advantages, but they also require application of advanced numerical models of exploitation condition, which are of high importance for designers, architects and engineers. However, computational cost is one of the most important problems in this approach, being very high and sometimes unacceptable. In this paper we propose approach based on Statistically Similar Representative Volume Element (SSRVE), which is generated by combination of isogeometric analysis and optimization methods. The proposed solution significantly decreases computational cost of complex multiscale simulations and simultaneously maintains high reliability of solvers. At first, the motivation of the work is described in introduction, which is followed by general idea of the SSRVE as a modelling technique. Afterwards, examples of generated SSRVEs based on two different cases are given and passed further to numerical simulations of exploitation conditions. The results obtained from these calculations are used in the model predicting gradients of material properties, which are crucial results for discussion on uniqueness of the proposed solution. Additionally, some aspects of computational cost reduction are discussed, as well.