Development of an ABAQUS™ plug-in for predicting composite plates stiffness with in-plane periodicity

Abstract

This paper presents an ABAQUS™ plug-in for predicting the stiffness of a composite plate with periodic microstructure. The plug-in supports the 3D finite element models of unit cells with in-plane symmetry from a periodic plate. With the help of the plug-in, a periodic plate can be considered a representative of the homogeneous plate. In this article, a plug-in is developed for determining the composite plate stiffness by using the principle of homogenization of plates with periodic microstructure. The plug-in is verified through numerical examples and the results closely corroborate with the published data.

Keywords

• Plug-in
• Periodic plate
• Homogenization
• Finite element method