Prediction of effective elastic modulus of plain weave multiphase and multilayer silicon carbide ceramic matrix composite

The bottom up multiscale finite element modelling that is based on the sequential consideration of the fibre/interface/matrix scale and the tow/matrix/coat scale is employed to predict the effective elastic modulus of the plain wave multiphase and multilayer silicon carbide ceramic matrix composite. Instead of using the homogenisation method, the strain energy based method that is advantageous in computing efficiency and numerical implementation is adopted for the multiscale analysis and evaluation of effective properties. First, the effective properties of tows are computed on the fibre/interface/ matrix scale. They are then incorporated into the tow/matrix/coat scale to evaluate the effective properties of the composite. Numerical results obtained by the proposed method and model show a good agreement with the results measured experimentally.