Numerical Simulations for Uniaxial Ratcheting of SiCP/6061Al Composites Concerning Particulate Arrangement

Based on three dimensional cubic unit cell models containing several particulates with certain particulate arrangements, the monotonic tensile and uniaxial ratcheting behaviors of particulate reinforced metal matrix composites (i.e., T6-treated SiCP/6061Al composites) were numerically simulated by using elastic-plastic finite element code ABAQUS with help of newly developed user material subroutine (UMAT). In the simulations, the effects of different particulate arrangements inside the unit cell models on the monotonic tensile and ratcheting behaviors of the composites were discussed. It is shown that the effect of particulate arrangement on the ratcheting of the composite depends on the arranged modes and the number of particulates contained in the model, and the interaction between particulates can be represented reasonably by the cubic unit cell model with a suitable distribution of multi-particulates.