TY - JOUR
TI - A novel determination of the minimal size of a probabilistic representative volume element for fiber-reinforced composites’ thermal analysis
AU - Tu Zecan
AU - Mao Junkui
AU - Mao Junjun
AU - Jiang Hua
JN - Thermal Science
PY - 2018
VL - 22
IS - 6
SP - 2551
EP - 2564
PT - Article
AB - In order to provide an accurate thermal analysis method of fiber-reinforced  composites, a novel model based on a probabilistic representative volume  element (RVE) is presented in this paper. Monte Carlo methods, probability  analysis and finite element analysis have been applied together. The  effective transverse thermal conductivity, heat flux field and thermal  gradient field of typical fiber-reinforced composites are examined. The  criteria of RVEs have been determined, and the minimal size for thermal  analysis is obtained using the main statistics and the cross-entropy theory.  At the same time, the fiber-to-matrix ratio of thermal conductivity and  volume fraction have been changed to determine the influence on heat  transfer inside fiber-reinforced composites. It is shown that different  purposes of simulations lead to different minimal RVE sizes. The numerical  results indicate that the non-dimensional minimal RVE sizes for calculating  the effective thermal conductivity, heat flux and thermal gradient are 30,  80 and 80, respectively. Compared with the volume fraction, the  fiber-to-matrix ratio of the thermal conductivity has a more significant  effect on minimal RVE size. When the thermal conductivity ratio increases,  the minimal size of the RVE increases at first, then it remains almost  unchanged.