Fully coupled nonlinear thermomechanical modeling of composites using mean-field Mori–Tanaka scheme combined with TFA theory

This article aims at proposing a new mean-field homogenization framework for the study of composites undergoing fully coupled thermomechanical processes. Strongly dissipative phenomena during high or moderate cyclic loading conditions in a structural component made of a composite material cause significant interplay between mechanical and thermal fields. The proposed framework attempts to address such effect by combining the Mori–Tanaka scheme and the Transformation Field Analysis (TFA) theory and by developing a multiscale framework capable of taking into account thermomechanically coupled processes. The numerical simulations performed in the examples section and validations with computations using periodic homogenization and full-structure analysis demonstrate the proposed strategy’s accuracy and robustness. The numerical simulation of a tube shows the model’s ability to simulate cyclic loading conditions with significantly less computational cost than the alternative FE2 computation strategies. This drastic computational time reduction is due to the semi-analytical formalism of the micromechanics methodology.