Computer simulation of creep damage at crack tip in short fibre composites

Creep damage at crack tip in short fibre composites has been simulated by using the finite element method (FEM). The well-known Schapery non-linear viscoelastic constitutive relationship was used to characterize time-dependent behaviour of the material. A modified recurrence equation was adopted to accelerate the iteration. Kachanov-Rabotnov's damage evolution law was employed. The growth of the damage zone with time around the crack tip was calculated and the results were shown with the so-called “digit photo”, which was produced by the printer. The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the LNM of Institute of Mechanics, CAS