Generation of random fiber distributions in fiber reinforced composites based on Delaunay triangulation

This paper presents a new method for generating the random fiber distributions of carbon fiber reinforced plastic with high volume fraction. The novelty is that an adaptive fiber shaking module is developed on the basis of Delaunay triangulation and combined with the proposed algorithm. The adaptability is to realize coordination between the parameters of fiber volume fraction and fiber spacing, in order to overcome the jamming limit and eliminate the unreasonable resin-rich zone that may appear at the boundary of the microstructures. The maximum fiber volume fraction reached is 67.43%. Statistical analysis is conducted on the generated microstructures, and there is a good agreement by comparing it with the statistical results of random sequential expansion algorithm and completely spatial random pattern. Finite element analysis is also performed to predict the elastic properties of the generated microstructures. It shows that a maximum absolute error is only 7.354% in elastic property by comparing with the experimental and simulation results in literatures. The proposed algorithm contributes to the further researches on the strength and micro-damage evolution of carbon fiber reinforced plastic. (c) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).