Data-based prediction of the viscoelastic behavior of short fiber reinforced composites

The viscoelastic behavior of short fiber reinforced polymers (SFRPs) partly depends on different microstructural parameters such as the local fiber orientation distribution. To account for this by simulation on component level, two-scale methods couple simulations on the micro- and macroscale, which involve considerable computational costs. To circumvent this problem, the generation of a viscoelastic surrogate model is presented here. For that purpose, an adaptive sampling technique is investigated and data are obtained by creep simulations of representative volume elements (RVEs) using a fast Fourier transform (FFT) based homogenization method. Numerical tests confirm the high accuracy of the surrogate model. The possibility of using that model for efficient material optimization is shown.