PRADO, E. B. T. (2013). Use of Computational and Homogenization Methods in the Investigation of the Nonlinear Elastic Behavior of Laminates. Doctoral Thesis -São Carlos School of Engineering, University of São Paulo, São Carlos, 2013. The theory of nonlinear elasticity is suitable for the investigation of material instabilities related to softening and formation of shear bands. These phenomena can arise in composites consisting of phases which, taken separately, do not exhibit such phenomena

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... er the same loading conditions. The main objective of this thesis is to use both computational and homogenization methods in the investigation of the behavior of two-phase laminates composed of nonlinear elastic laminae. In particular, we use the finite element method (FEM) and both the asymptotic homogenization method (AHM) and the tangent secondorder homogenization method to generate computational and analytical results that can be compared to each other. With this goal in mind, we study first the effective behavior of bilaminates composed of periodic distributions of linearly elastic, homogeneous, and isotropic laminae. The bilaminates are in equilibrium in the absence of body forces. A sequence of bilaminates with increasing number of laminae is used to numerically simulate uniaxial tensile tests in the small strain regime using refined finite element meshes. Computational results are then compared with analytical results obtained from a similar tensile test of a solid homogenized via MHA. The computational results tend to the analytical result as the number of laminae in the sequence of bilaminates tends to infinity. Next, we investigate the effective behavior of bilaminates composed of periodic distributions of nonlinearly elastic, homogeneous, isotropic, and quasi-incompressible laminae that are subjected to deformation conditions on their boundaries. Using the tangent second-order homogenization method, the effective properties of the bilaminates are determined. These properties are used in the Legendre-Hadamard condition to predict loss of ellipticity of the governing equations. Violation of this condition is related to the formation of shear bands in the composite. Using refined finite element meshes, we simulate numerically the problem of equilibrium of a bilaminate with a high number of laminae in the absence of body force and subjected to deformation conditions on the boundary. The computational results predict loss of ellipticity at a deformation level close to the deformation level for which loss of ellipticity is predicted by the homogenization method. The computational and analytical results indicate that the loss of ellipticity is strongly influenced by both the heterogeneity contrast between the phases and the boundary conditions.