Efficiency of boundary conditions on the computation of local fields in a Representative Volume Element
Résumé
Within the framework of numerical homogeneization approaches, we focus on the effect
of boundary conditions (BCs) on local mechanical fields computed by the Finite Ele-
ment method. The influence of classical BCs (affine displacements, periodic conditions)
imposed on the Representative Volume Element (RVE) has been largely studied with re-
spect to the effective macroscopic behaviour [1]. When a periodic microstructure can be
generated at the RVE scale (periodic or model materials typically), periodic conditions
produce more accurate results. However, these conditions come with technical difficulties
linked to the generation of the periodic mesh and additional costs in terms of computation
time.
In a multiscale use of numerical homogenization [2], local fields are of great importance to
detect phenomena arising at the local scale. Moreover these fields must be computed in
reasonable calculation times to make these numerical coupling approaches efficient. Very
few studies focus on the effects of the BCs on the local behaviour. Affine displacement
conditions, which are the computationnally most efficient technique, are subject to lo-
cal boundary effects, located on cut inclusions in case of matrix-inclusion composites [3].
Different ways are followed in order to improve the ratio precision over cost of such ap-
proaches : truncation or filtering [4], homogenization-based Dirichlet values, RVE without
cut inclusions.
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