how I can find the effective mechanical properties of a multilayer structure, specifically the elasticity of a multilayer structure?
I'm simulating a multilayer membrane RF switch. the membrane consists of multi-metal layers and dielectric. it becomes nonlinear. so I want to Use equivalent mechanical characteristics and simplify multi-layer into one layer.
Steven Van Petegem
hi, Thank you for your answer.
I'm simulating a multilayer membrane RF switch. the membrane consists of multi-metal layers and dielectric. it becomes nonlinear. so I want to Use equivalent mechanical characteristics and simplify multi-layer into one layer.
Hi Mostafa Shabani
I suggest you use the laminated plate theory.
Imagine that you have 3 layers. You can compute the effective properties of each layer by numerical homogenization (or some other analytical homogenization methods if you can implement them). And then you can assign these properties into three laminas.
In your FE simulation (let’s say you use Abaqus) you model a laminated plate with shell elements including three layers whose mechanical properties were already computed from homogenization and (their thickness comes from your geometry). This technique is also called layer-wised homogenization. I used it for sandwich lattice structure (two faces with a core lattice stricture like honeycomb). And it worked for me.
Some issue:
In numerical homogenization, once we apply periodic boundary conditions, we assume that there are an infinite number of the same microstructures (so-called representative volume element or RVE). Correspondingly, we assume that the microstructure is periodic in direction of the thickness. Well, this assumption might cause some errors (depending on the heterogeneity and shell thickness).
I suggest you verify the homogenized moel's predictions against the full meshed model (the original model with 3D elements). Then for the same loading and boundary conditions, you can evaluate the error of your homogenized model.
All models can be then validated with the experiment.
Hope it was useful for you.
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