Computers& Smcrures Vol. 53, No. 2. pp.

449-W 1994
Copyright 0 1994 Elxvier Science Ltd
Pergamon 0045-7949(94)30226-R Printedin Great Britain.All rights reserved
@x5-7949/94 s7.00 + o.cnl

GEOMETRICALLY NONLINEAR FINITE ELEMENT

ANALYSIS OF VISCOELASTIC COMPOSITE MATERIALS
UNDER MECHANICAL AND HYGROTHERMAL LOADS

S. P. C. Marques? and G. J. Creust

TDepartment of Structural Engineering, EES/UFAL, and iDepartment of Civil Engineering,
CPGEC/UFRGS, Av. Oswald0 Aranha, 99 Porto Alegre, 90135-190 RS, Brazil

(Received 25 November 1992)

Abstract-The time-dependent response of polymeric matrix laminated composites subject to mechanical

and hygrothermal loads is considered. The analysis is based on an incremental total Lagrangian
formulation which allows the treatment of finite displacements and small strains. A three-dimensional
degenerated finite element model is employed to analyze the plates and shells. The material is considered
as linear viscoelastic and hygrothermal-rheologially simple. Numerical examples for isotropic and
graphite-epoxy laminated plates and shells are presented.

1. INTRODUCTION 2. MOISTURE AND TEMPERATURE EFFECT

Fiber-reinforced polymeric matrix composites are
increasingly used, particularly in the aerospace indus-
try, due to their high mechanical performance, light-
weight and great flexibility in design. On the other
hand it is well known that the mechanical character-
istics of polymers are significantly affected by en-
vironmental agents, particularly temperature and
humidity [ 11. The time-dependent deformations of
polymers increase with both temperature rise and
moisture absorption. Hence, to properly account
for the effect of hygrothermal loads on composite
materials, a viscoelastic model is required [2].
Few works using the finite element method for
viscoelastic analysis of composites systems have been
published in the literature [3,4]. Most available stud-
ies are concerned with special cases for which the
classical lamination theory may be applied [2,5]. In
this paper, a finite element procedure for the analysis
of the viscoelastic behavior of fibre-reinforced poly-
meric matrix composite laminates is presented. The
procedure is based on an incremental total Lagran-
gian description [6], that allows the consideration of
large displacements with small strains, and on a linear
viscoelastic constitutive model in which the time-
dependent strains are evaluated by a state variables
approach [7]. A three-dimensional degenerated finite
element formulation for shell analysis is employed [6].
Numerical examples showing the time-dependent
behavior of graphite-+poxy laminates subjected
to mechanical and thermal loads are presented. Cases
of viscoelastic snap-through of isotropic and lami-
nated shells are analyzed; a numerical example of
thermal buckling of an elastic laminated plate is also
presented.
Investigations have shown that the mechanical
properties of the commonly used advanced fiber-
reinforced epoxy laminates can be significantly
affected by environmental agents [ 1,8]. Temperature
changes and moisture absorption in the resin matrix
cause dimensional variations and alter the mechan-
ical characteristics of the material, in particular the
resin-dominated properties. Hygrothermal actions in-
crease the viscoelastic response of the resin matrix
and, consequently, the laminate can exhibit an
important time-dependent behavior [2].
Moisture causes lowering of the glass transition
temperature of the matrix and also includes a degra-
dation of the material with time. Graphite fibers,
unlike glass fibers, appear not to be affected by
exposure to moisture [ 1, 51.
The resin matrix absorbs moisture directly from
the atmosphere by diffusion. Moisture concentration
inside a laminate can be approximately evaluated
through Fick’s second law which is expressed as [8]
aH(z, t) Ka=H
at
=-,
az2 (1)
In this equation H represents the concentration of the
moisture through the laminate thickness, K is the
diffusion constant of the material, t the time and z
the space coordinate in the direction of the thickness.
The solution of (1) may be obtained for specified
boundary conditions by means of ref. [8]. The moist-
ure diffusion process in composite materials is gener-
ally slow and can require months or even years for the
equilibrium condition to be attained, while tempera-
ture transmission is in general a much faster process.

449
450 S. P. C. Marques and G. J. Creus

Crossman et al. [l] have presented results of exper-
iments on graphite-epoxy composite subjected to
combinations of different temperature and moisture
values. From these tests the viscoelastic character-
istics of three classes of structural graphite-epoxy
composites were evaluated.
To perform an analysis of a composite system we
must know the temperature and moisture distribution
through the thickness of the laminate, and the corre-
sponding properties of the material. Using the hy-
grothermal-rheologically simple material concept [S],
creep or relaxation properties at different moisture
contents and temperature combinations may be com-
puted from reference values using the appropriate
shift factors [9, lo] as shown in next section.
3. CONSTITUTIVE VISCOELASTIC RELATIONS
OF A LAYER
Figure 1 shows an orthotropic linear viscoelastic
layer for which the principal material directions are
coincident with the axes 1, 2 and 3. For mechanical
and hygrothermal loads, the constitutive relations of
the layer, referred to the principal material directions,
may be written as [7,9, lo]
and T* and H* are temperature and moisture values
corresponding to the strain-free state. ei, ai, T and H
are field variables and thus change in general from
point to point, even when this dependence is not
explicitly stated.
At this point we assume the material to be hy-
grothermal-rheologically simple, and therefore we
write
bij(T, H, r) = Dij(To, Hop 5(j)> (3)
where To and Ho are reference values, and tij are the
reduced times which are determined through [4]
5ij = ’ Vi,(T(r)v H(7)) d7, (4)
I0
where ‘pij are the horizontal temperature-moisture
shift factors to be determined experimentally [ 11.The
hypothesis of the hygrothermal-rheologically simple
material represents fairly well the behavior of actual
materials used in composites [ 1,2]. Substituting (3)
into (2) we have

aaj(7)
e,(t) = &(T,fLt-7)

s
d7

T
a7

+ Ui(T,H)dT+ “bi(T,H)dH, (5)

+ cri(T, H) dT
where
P 5 H*

+ “p,(T,H)dH, i,j=l,... 9% (2) l;jj = ’ cp,(T@), H(d)) dti. (6)

s H* 50

where e,(t) and a,(t) are the components of the strain
vector {e} = {e,,, eZ2,2eu, 2e,,, 2e,,} and stress vec-
tor {o>= {c,1,c22,c12,c ,3r a23}, at time t, respect-
ively, ek,represent the components of the small strain
tensor and ak, are the components of the engineering
stress tensor. T and H indicate the temperature and
the moisture content, respectively. The components
e3, and a,, are not considered here.
In eqn (2), b,,(T, H, t - t) are the creep functions
corresponding to components e, and a,, uj(T, H) are
the thermal expansion coefficients, that in general
depend on moisture content and temperature,
/l,(T, H) are the hygroscopic expansion coefficients
As we are concerned with small strains, we can
decompose the total strain components e, into visco-
elastic &, thermal e’ and hygroscopic e” parts
e,(t) = &(t) + e’(T, H) + er(T, H). (7)
Upon integration by parts, the first integral in (5) may
be written
- d~Di,(T,,H,,C,-r:i)a,(r)dr. (8)
s

Approximating the creep functions by a Dirichlet-

Prony series we have

Dii(To,H,,,<ii-[;i)=D:j+ ; D$

r[l -exp( -?)I, (9)

where D$, D$ and 07, are parameters to be deter-

mined from experimental results. M is the number of
Fig. 1. Coordinate systems of an anisotropic body. significant terms in the series and depends on the
 Finite element analysis of composite materials 451

accuracy desired. The parameters 67, are called retar- 4. NONLINEAR FINITE ELEMENT FORMULATION

dation times.
The expression of the virtual displacement prin-
Substituting (9) into (8) we have
ciple in a total Lagrangian formulation may be
written as [6]
cf(t) = oij(ro, Ho, O)ai(t)

d?j(To, Ho, <ii- <ij)Fi(r) dr, (10) k+;Sij~k+‘o~,,odV =k+‘R, (16)

s OV
where
where k+ ‘R is the external virtual work in the k + 1th
(11) incremental step, k+i S,, , k+A~ij are components of
the second Piola-Kirchhoff stress tensor and Green-
Lagrange strain tensor in the k + lth step, res-
and no summation takes place on i,j. pectively, both referred to the initial configuration,
We may still write and ‘V is the initial configuration volume of the
body.
We may write the following decomposition
zi(t) = D,(To, Ho, 0)0,(t) + 2 f: qZ(t), (12)
p=ls=l

where

ktl
q;,(t)= ‘~~,(To,Ho,51,-T;,)a,(r)d7 l)Cij = tt,j + CJCfjY (17)
I0
where ,S, and o~ij are the increments in stress and
#2(t) = ‘&,(T,, Ho> t,2 - 5;2)~2(T) dt
strain components, respectively, in the k + 1th step.
I’ 0
The strain increment may still be decomposed into
linear oeij and or7i,nonlinear parts

d’s(t) =
J 0
‘d%(To, Ho, tss- t;sb&) dt (13)
OtijEOe,, + O'lij. (18)

are the state variables.

The viscoelastic strain Fi is formed by two com- Writing the strain increments decomposed into in-
ponents, the instantaneous e; and the deferred ey stantaneous, deferred, thermal and hygroscopic com-
given, respectively, by ponents we have

e: = D,(T,, Ho, O)a,(t)

o~ij=oE~+o~~+o~,~+o~~. (19)

(14)
The linearized relation, as in [6], between stress and
strain increments may then be written as
By differentiating (13) with relation to the upper limit
r we have
Osij= oGjrs[oers - 0eb - 0eL - oeffl. (20)

Using the eqns (16H18) and (20), we obtain

JOV
oGjrsoe,3~oecjodV +
J
OV
;SijGo~ijodV

(1% = k+lR _ tSij?ioeijodV

JOV
This is a system of linear first-order uncoupled differ-
ential equations that together with the initial con-
dition q$ = 0 at t = 0 allows the determination of the
state variables knowing the stress history. This system
+
J OV
oCijrsoeFs~oetjodV

may be solved incrementally by finite differences, as

indicated in Sec. 5.
+
J OV
oC+(oeL +oeWoeijodV.
452 S. P. C. Marques and G. J. Creus

Working with the finite element method and using

matrix notation, the above equation may be written {OF”} = 2{ [~BL]T[oC]{oe"} “dV,, (26)
y-1 0’;
for each element

1’0 = 5 j [~~LITIOCl~o~T~
OdV, (27)
q=I 0’;

IOFH)= f j [~~LITIOCl~o~“~od~,,.
(28)
q=l “Vq

= ik+‘R} - [;B,]r{;S}odV
5 0)
+ [{BL]r[K’]({oe’} + {“e’} + {OeH})OdV,
s OV
(21)
where {U} is the nodal displacement increment vec-
tor, [iBL] and [:B,,] are the linear and nonlinear
strain-displacement transformation matrices, re-
spectively. (For more details on these last matrices,
see [6].) Here [.I’ indicates transpose of the matrix.
Evaluating the volume integrals above on each of
the N layers of volume V, we may write
In the expressions above [k&l and [:K,,] are the
linear and nonlinear tangent stiffness matrices, re-
spectively, corresponding to step k, { ‘+ ‘R} is the
vector of external loads at step k + 1, {;F} is the
vector of nodal point forces equivalent to the element
stresses at step k and, finally, {OF”}, {‘Fr} and {OF”}
are the vectors of viscoelastic, thermal and hygro-
scopic loads, respectively.
5. COMPUTATIONAL DETAILS
The numerical solution of the problem formulated
in the last section is implemented through an incre-
mental-iterative procedure. Thus, the nonlinear equi-
librium equations (22) are written as

= {k+l~} _ {k+;,c}‘-’

+{oF”}‘+ {OFT}‘+ {OFHJ’, (29)

where the index i indicates the number of the iteration

step. The viscoelastic, thermal and hygroscopic load
vectors are taken as zero for i 2 2. For i = 1, these
vectors are determined by means of eqns (26), (27)
and (28), respectively.
For the solution of the nonlinear equilibrium
equations (29), the Newton-Raphson method is used
together with the displacements convergence criterion

or, in compact form

where [II!?\/ is the norm of the displacements incre-

+ {OF”)
+ {OFT}
+ {OF”} (22) ments vector at iteration i, IIUOi,lis the norm of the
vector of total displacements at the same iteration
being and p is the tolerance factor.
Considering a small time-interval At, we can write,
using (11) and (13), the following equation

u,(7) dr. (31)

 Finite element analysis of composite materials
Taking u(t) as constant along the interval At and
equal to a(t), we can integrate to obtain [A
+ DC{ 1 - exp( +‘)]o,(r). (32)
Using (32), it is possible to evaluate the variables q$
at time t + At as functions of their values at time t.
Other procedures may be seen in [ll].
In the computational code the values of the time
intervals are chosen in order to have similar deferred
strain increments at each step [ll]. To that end, we
assume that the time-dependent behavior of the
material is modeled by the series (9) truncated after
the first term, with the shortest retardation time 0.
Considering an axial stress c on this simplified
model, the deferred viscoelastic strain increment be-
tween times t and t + At is given by
Ae” = e e-““[I _ e-A@]/E (33)
where E is the Young’s modulus in the direction
of the stress. Making the deferred strain increments,
given by (33), equal to Ae” at t = 0 and considering
the initial time increment At,, as a fraction f of the
retardation time 0 (At0 = e/f), we obtain [I l]
At = -0 ln[l - exp(t/@ + exp(t/e - lif)] (34)
f = e/At,, can be chosen. Whenever the expression
between brackets in eqn (34) is negative, we adopt the
same time increment of the preceeding step. The use
of (34) provides values of At that usually grow with
time, due to the reduction of the slope of the creep
curves.
Procedures of the analysis
1. The loading history (mechanical, thermal and
humidity loads) is divided into stages, each begin-
ning at ti and ending at t,; load are applied at the
beginning of the interval in a predefined number
of increments.
2. After each load increment, the program performs
iterations until equilibrium is reached.
3. After all the loads corresponding to one stage have
been applied, the time-dependent analysis takes
place, until the end t, of the stage is attained.
4. For each incremental step in the viscoelastic analy-
sis, at any loading stage, we begin determining a
value of At, by eqn (34). For this value of time
interval (i.e. for t = t + At), we determine the
values of the state variables, using eqn (32), then,
the components of deferred viscoelastic strain
using eqn (14) and the increments of viscoelastic
loads according to eqn (26) for t = t + At.
5. The viscoelastic load increments are applied for
i = 1, afterwards, iterations are made until conver-
453
gence. The analysis proceeds in the same way for
the next t, until t,.
6. We go to the next loading stage, etc.
The computer code was written in FORTRAN 77
and runs on PC, WS and Cray YMP computers at
UFRGS.
6. NUMERICAL EXAMPLES
6.1. Plate of graphite-epoxy subjected to temperature
change
This example refers to a laminated symmetrical
plate with eight unidirectional graphite-expoxy layers
subjected to an instantaneous change of temperature
from 350°F to 75°F. The laminate is a [O/45/90/-45],
with a width of 1 in and 2 in length. Each layer
has a thickness of 0.0055 in. The material is modeled
with elastic behavior in the fiber direction and visco-
elastic behavior in the other directions. The elastic
properties of the material are shown in Table 1. The
creep functions adopted for the material are (with t
in min)
Q*(t) = [0.8596 - 0.0318 exp(-t/300)
- 0.0659 exp( - t/6000) - 0.0476
xexp( -t/120,000)] x 10-6(psi)-’
D,(t)=[1.3170-O.O494exp(-t/300)
-0.0924 exp( - t/6000)
-0.0641 exp(-t/120,000)]
x 10w6(psi)-’ (in shear).
These creep functions were obtained approximating
the power-law functions presented in [3], using an
iterative procedure.
Analyses were performed with both large and small
displacement formulations. The differences observed
were small, as already expected due to the type of
problem. Figures 2 and 3 show the strains and
stresses obtained in the analysis. We observe that
both strains and stresses diminish with increasing
time. The strain and the stress (in the 0” layer)
components, in the x direction, obtained at t = 0 were
c,(O) = -4.5551 x 10m4 and q,(O) = 5380 psi. The
analyses were made using At,, = 200 min and a shift
factor equal to 1.00.
Table 1. Graphite-epoxy material
properties [3]
Constant Value
E,, 18.0 x 106psi
I .4 x lo6 psi
E22
G,, 0.9 x 106psi
“I2 0.34
,%I 0.2 x IO-6i”F
u22 16.0 x lo-+F
454 S. P. C. Marques and G. J. Creus

- Angle -Ply

‘----Cross-Ply -

2
Time (hours) 0.0. 1 / I I j
0 100 200 300 400
Fig. 2. Normalized strains in a graphite+poxy laminated
plate subjected to a temperature change. t (hours)
Fig. 4. Strain t, in angle-ply and cross-ply laminates.

6.2. Plate of graphite-epoxy subjected to mechanical

load
In this example a graphite-epoxy plate is subjected
to an uniform distributed tension load of 100 lb/in in
the x direction until t = 200 hr, and then unloaded.
The plate has a length of 2 in and a width of 1 in.
Each layer is 0.0055 in thick. The same material
properties of the example in Sec. 6.1 are used. The
creep and recovery responses for a symmetrical angle-
ply [45/-45/45/-451, and for a symmetrical cross-
ply [O/90/0/90], laminates are analyzed. The results
are presented in Fig. 4 and in Table 2. As expected,
the most significant creep response is exhibited by the
angle-ply [45/ - 45/45/ -451, laminate.
6.3. Laminated spherical shell under
changes
The spherical shell shown in Fig. 5 is made of a
symmetrical cross-ply laminate [O/90/0/90], with
R = 100 in, a = 30.9017 in and h = 0.044 in. The ma-
terial properties are the same given in the example in
Sec. 6.1. The shell is subjected to instantaneous
temperature changes according to following con-
ditions
Case I: Ti= 350”F, Z”= 75”F,
cp= 1.O (T = 75”F, H = 0.00%)
Case II: T, = 350”F, T,= 75”F,
Case III: T, = 350”F, T, = 75”F,
cp = 50.0 (T = 75”F, H = 1.45%)
Case IV: T, = 350”F, T, = 122”F,
cp= 171.79 (T = 122”F, H = 0.14%),
where Ti and T, indicate the initial and final values of
the temperatures, respectively, and cp is the shift
factor which was supposed independent of the direc-
tion. The values of cp were obtained approximately
from curves for graphite-epoxy T300/934 published
temperature
in [1], corresponding to reference temperature and
moisture indicated in parentheses.
The shell boundaries were assumed to be simply
supported. Figure 6 shows the increment of the
vertical displacement at the shell top along time. As
expected we see in Fig. 5 that a more accelerated
time-dependent deformation process occurs for
higher temperature levels and moisture contents.
Also, the greater the temperature and moisture values
the lower the stabilization times; this fact is implicit
in the shift factor concept.
The vertical displacements in the top of the shell at
time t = 0 were found equal to -0.0510 in for cases
I, II and III and to -0.03675 in for case IV.

cp= 2.5 (T = 75”F, H = 1.04%) 6.4. Viscoelastic snap-through of an isotropic spheri-

cal shell
1.2 To check the large displacement formulation
for the description of viscoelastic snap-through of
s ‘.O shells, we consider first a simply supported spherical
shell (Fig. 6) with R = lOOin, a = 30.9017 in and
q 06

z 0.6
Table 2. Strain c, in the angle-ply and cross-ply
6” 0.4 laminates (time in hr)
Time Angle-ply Cross-ply
02, , , I I I I
0 50 10 150 200 250 300 350 0 0.7420 x 10-j 0.2328 x 1O-3
Time (hours 1 200- 0.8206 x lo-’ 0.2349 x 10-j
2OOf 0.7867 x 1O-4 0.2112 x IO-5
Fig. 3. Normalized thermal stresses in the 0” layer of a 400 0.1456 x 1O-4 0.3520 x 1O-6
graphite-epoxy laminated plate.
 Finite element analysis of composite materials 455

-0 -1 -2 -3 -4 -5 -6 -7 -8 -9 -10-11-12
w linl
Fig. 7. Elastic load-displacement curve of a isotropic shell
under a center point load.

{Fig. 7). For this analysis an iterative numerical

o 100200 300400 500600 700 procedure adequate to model softening post-critical
Time (hours 1 behavior implemented into the computational
Fig. 5. Vertical displacements on the top of a viscoelastic
code [12] was used.
laminated shell subjected to a temperature change. Afterward, several time-dependent analyses at
different load levels, were performed (Fig. 6). As
expected, the critical time increases when the load is
(Fig. 6) with R = lOOin, a = 30.9017 in and reduced. For a load P = 8800 lb, for instance, the
h = 3.9154 in. The shell is made of an isotropic linear results show that for t 2 2.0 the vertical displace-
viscoelastic material with E = 10,000 psi and ments in the shell top increase rapidly up to attain a
v = 0.30. The corresponding material creep functions, value for which the stiffness of the shell increases
for the axial and shear strain, respectively, are sharply, after the snap through. This occurs when the
vertical ~spla~ment is approximately equal to twice
~~,(r)=[O.lO-O.lOexp(-~/S)] x 10-3(psi)-’ the value corresponding to limit point shown in
Fig. 7.
L&(t) = [0.26 - 0.26 exp( -t/S)] x 10m3(psi))‘. We must recall that this is a quasi-static analysis.
A dynamic analysis could show some differences
First, an elastic nonlinear analysis was performed in during the fast snap-through jump.
order to know the elastic equilibrium path of the shell

-6
2
z
s"
g -5
.-

z
5
o -4
-F
E
0"
-3
0 2ooO 4000 6000 8000 10000
Time Imin)
Fig. 6. Central vertical displacements of an isotropic shell Fig. 8. Central vertical displacements on the top of a
for different values of the center point load. viscoelastic laminated shell as a function of time.

CAS 5312-O
456 S. P. C. Marques and G. J. Creus
6 posite systems subject to mechanical and hygrothermal
0 the time-dependent response of plates and shells was
Fig. 9. Effect of ply orientation on the critical temperature
of an elastic simply supported angle ply plate.
6.5. Viscoelastic snap-through of a graphite-epoxy
laminated spherical shell
Now we consider the snap-through behavior of a
simply supported graphite-epoxy laminated spherical
shell with a cross-ply [O/90/90/0] lamination scheme.
The thickness of the shell is of 0.044 in while the others
dimensions, as well as the geometrical shape, are equal
to those of the example in Sec. 6.4. Due to symmetry,
one quarter of the shell was disc&&d in four nine-
noded elements. The results are shown in Fig. 8. The
instantaneous critical load is 28601b. For a load
smaller than P = 2820 lb the critical time is large due
to the weakly time-dependent response of the material.
6.6. Thermal buckling of an elastic laminated plate
The objective of this example is to study the effects
of boundary conditions and lamination schemes on the
critical temperature of a square laminated plate. The
plate is constituted by four layers stacked in the
following lamination schemes: SLl [e/-e/e/ - 01,
SL2 [e/e/-e/-e] and SL3 [0/-0/-0/e]. Two sets
of constraints are considered: simply supported edges
and clamped edges. The material properties are:
E,,IEx = 40, G,J& = 0.6, G,, = Gut G,,lE,, = 0.5,
E,, = 130 GPa, a,, = 1 x lO-6/C and t1r2= 2cz,,. The
side length and the thickness of the plates are, respect-
ively, 80 and 4cm. A discretization with nine nine-
noded elements was adopted. The results are presented
in Figs 9 and 10 together with those published in [13].
7. FINAL REMARKS
Some finite element procedures for the geometrically
nonlinear analysis of linear viscoelastic laminated com-
Fig. 10. Effect of ply orientation on the critical temperature
of an elastic clamped angle ply plate.
loads have been described. To this end, the large
displacement and small deformation formulation in [6]
was extended to include viscoelastic and hygrothermal
loads. Viscoelastic deformations are determined using
an efficient state variables approach and the hypothesis
of hygrothermal-rheologically simple materials. The
formulation was implemented into a finite element
program with three-dimensional degenerated shell el-
ements, including iteration procedures. With this code,
analyzed, obtaining good approximation with the re-
sults published in the literature. In particular, the effect
of ply orientation on the time-dependent behavior and
elastic buckling temperature of plates has been
confirmed. Numerical examples concerning isotropic
and laminated spherical shells demonstrated the
efficiency of the formulation in the description of
viscoelastic snap-through phenomenon.
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