Ansys material designer modeling of earthen straw

2024 4th International Conference on Innovative Research in Applied Science, Engineering and Technology (IRASET) | 979-8-3503-0950-8/24/$31.00 ©2024 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/IRASET60544.2024.10548789

bio-composite material for the mechanical behavior

prediction

Soukaina REGRAGUI Mourad TAHA JANAN Mohamed ABOUSSALEH

Laboratory of Applied Mechanics and Laboratory of Applied Mechanics and Team M2I, Laboratory of Sciences and
Technologies (LAMAT) Technologies (LAMAT) Engineering
ENSAM, Mohammed V University in Rabat, ENSAM, Mohammed V University in Rabat, ENSAM, Moulay Ismail University
Rabat, Morocco Rabat, Morocco Meknes, Morocco
soukaina_regragui2@[Link] [Link]@[Link] aboussaleh_med@[Link]

Abstract— Modeling and simulation are powerful tools which areas of science and industrial applications (or engineering
have shown their benefits in several sectors by allowing the sciences) [2]. In particular, for the case of Short Fibers
prediction and/or the understanding of the behavior of objects in Reinforced Composites (SFRCs), the essential tool for
the conception phase or already existing. In this paper, modeling these materials at all scales is numerical simulation;
construction industry was explored by carrying out 3D modeling it integrates several representation scales into the same model
of the earthen-straw composite material in order to predict its in order to predict the influence of the behavior of small scales
mechanical properties through ANSYS Material Designer. on the behavior of the entire structure on the macroscopic
Hence, this bio-composite material has been modeled as a scale. Today, the evolution of digital simulation has also
randomly distributed Short Fibers Reinforced Composite
authorized the deployment of a large number of methods for
(SFRC) with a random geometry of fibers. Then, the dimensions
changing scales, known as homogenization methods. As a
of the brick were varied in order to study the effect of the brick
size on the effective properties of this material. It was concluded
result, numerous studies have been assigned to this
that the size of the brick does not influence its mechanical topic [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8]. The homogenization methods
behavior. Thus, the Representative Elementary Volume (REV) of can be classified into two categories, computational
the raw earth brick has been chosen. On the other hand, the methods [3], [5], [8] and analytical ones [4], [6], [7] like the
effect of fiber volume fraction (Vf) on the elastic properties of study performed by S. M. Mirkhalaf & all [4], which presents
this bio-composite material was investigated for the straw a two-step homogenization approach using Finite Element
contents from 5% to 25% by volume of earthen. It shows that the Analysis and Orientation Averaging to predict the elastic
addition of straw fibers in the earthen matrix with elasticity properties of short fiber reinforced composites. It discusses the
equal to 2000 MPa has improved its mechanical resistance. use of different interaction assumptions, such as Voigt and
Indeed, for 25% of straw fiber's filling rate, we have found 2348 Reuss, and introduces a self-consistent model for more
MPa in the young’s modulus of the earthen straw composite accurate predictions. The method is applied to various
material, which is equivalent to an increase of 17.4% in this composites, showing good agreement with experimental data
intrinsic parameter. The model was finally validated by its and computational homogenization analyses. In the present
comparison to some well-known analytical model’s prediction. study, computational method is used since that the predictive
The results of ANSYS material designer simulation demonstrate capacity of this modeling approach is very strong. It has been
a high level of accuracy compared to analytical methods. frequently employed in the analysis of SFRC due to its
accurate results [3], [5], [8], [9]. Indeed, N. Mentges & all have
Keywords— ANSYS Material Designer modeling, Earthen
straw composite material, Short Fibers Reinforced Composite,
developed Artificial Neural Network (ANN) models to predict
Mechanical behavior, Representative Elementary Volume the mechanical and elastic properties of fiber-reinforced
composites. The models were trained using micromechanical
I. INTRODUCTION simulations and experimental data, showing good agreement
with predictions and real-life results [5].
Modeling is the process of producing a model [1] which is
a simplified image of reality that we use to understand how a The rest of this paper is organized in the following manner.
system works. It is the art (or science) of representing (or Section 2 outlines the modeling approach and illustrates the
transforming) a physical reality into abstract models accessible parameters chosen for the user-defined microstructure. The
to analysis and calculation. On the other hand, digital Representative Volume Element (RVE) and the effect of the
simulation is the process which makes it possible to calculate brick size on its effective elastic properties are presented in
the solutions of these models on a computer and therefore to section 3. Section 4 shows the effect of fiber volume fraction
simulate physical reality. Modeling and numerical simulation (Vf) on the mechanical behavior of the earthen straw composite
have taken on considerable importance in recent decades in all material. The model validation is described in section 5 by the

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comparison of the obtained results to well-known
well analytical fiber volume fraction, fiber diameter, dimensions of the RVE,
model’s predictions. Finally, the
he contributions of this study are and other relevantt geometric properties.
summarized in section 6 and some insights are provided.
Parameters Depending on the specific
Additional Parameters:
II. ANSYS MATERIAL DESIGNER MODELING requirements of the analysis, users may need to specify
additional parameters such as fiber orientation distribution,
A. Generalities boundary conditions, and loading conditions.
ANSYS Material Designer is an ANSYS application that By following these steps,
teps, users can set up a comprehensive
allows us to model and analyze microstructures and derive model of the composite material within ANSYS Material
homogenized material properties. It is characterized by the Designer. The software then utilizes computational techniques,
powerful creation of Representative Elementary Volumes, such as finite element analysis, to simulate the mechanical
ready-to-use
use parameterization of them as well as the provision behavior of the composite under various conditions. This
of resulting variable material data for structural and thermal allows engineers to predict the performance of the composite
analyses. This modeling tool is capable of computing the material and optimize its design for specific applications.
elastic and thermal properties of orthotropic and heterogeneous
composite materials.
als. It achieves this by defining the properties
of the constituent materials (such as fibers and matrices) and
modeling the microstructure using a RVE. The RVE is
essentially the smallest volume element of a material whose
properties are statistically representative
resentative at a macroscale
level [10], [11]. This approach allows foror accurate prediction of
the macroscopic behavior of composite materials based on
their microstructural properties.
In ANSYS Material Designer, one of the easiest and
quickest ways to model composites is through its Graphical
User Interface (GUI). The GUI provides an intuitive
environment where you can define the properties of the
constituent materials (such as fibers and matrices), specify the
microstructure using predefined patterns or customize your
own, and simulate the behavior of the composite material.
materi
Additionally, ANSYS Material Designer offers various Fig. 1. Various representative volume elements in Ansys Material Designer
templates and built-in
in material models that simplify the process
of setting up composite simulations. These templates allow you B. Chosen parameters for the user-defined microstructure
to quickly select common composite configurations and input defined microstructure was chosen with
In this study, user-defined
relevant parameters
rameters without needing to manually define every the parameters below:
aspect of the material.
For the smooth running of the simulation, isotropic
The procedure of Material designer is described in the behavior was assumed for both the straw and the raw earth.
following steps: Then,, the model was fed with the elastic properties of the straw
Define Material Properties:: The process typically begins and the soil described in TABLE I. and extracted from
by defining the material properties of each constituent material previous studies [12], [13],
[13] [14], [15], [16]. Indeed, the
in the composite. This includes elastic constants, Poisson’s elasticity of this composite material refers to that of the earth
ratio, density, strength, and other relevant properties. Synthetic matrix and the straw fibers.
fibers are often orthotropic, meaning their properties vary with Regarding the geometry, a new representative elementary
direction, while natural fibers are often assumed to be volume has been integrated.. It has the specificity of random
isotropic. geometry for the case of randomly distributed short fibers as
Select Microstructure Type:: Next, users choose the type illustrated in Fig. 2
of microstructure they want to model. ANSYS Material Concerning the mesh, the conformal and periodic type has
Designer offers options such as unidirectional, random been selected with 5 mm for the max size.
size
unidirectional, chopped fiber, and woven fiber as shown in Fig.
1Fig. 1.. Each microstructure type represents different For the type of material anisotropy, orthotropic one has
arrangements of the reinforcement within the matrix. been chosen.
Add Reinforcement and Matrix Materials:
Materials Once the For the boundary conditions, we selected periodic since the
microstructure type is selected, users add the reinforcement chosen mesh was periodic.
(fibers) and matrix materials to the model. This involves
specifying the material properties and volume fractions of both
the reinforcement and matrix.
Create Geometry:: After adding the materials, users define
the geometry of the model. This includes parameters such as

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TABLE I. ELASTIC PROPERTIES OF STRAW FIBERS AND EARTHEN been chosen with a width of 40mm, a thickness of 20mm and a
MATRIX
length of 60mm. This REV will serve as a basis for future
Material Young's modulus (MPa) Poisson's ratio associated studies since it has a crucial role in time
Straw 4760 [12] 0,3 [14]
optimization during the simulation performed by ANSYS
Material Designer.
Earthen 2000 [13] 0,38 [15][16]
IV. EFFECT OF FIBER VOLUME
ME FRACTION ON THE MECHANICAL
BEHAVIOR OF THE EARTHEN
HEN STRAW COMPOSITE MATERIAL
The effect of adding different fill rates of straw fibers to the
raw earth matrix is shown in Fig. 4 and Fig. 5. It can be
concluded that the addition of straw fibers in the earthen matrix
leads to increase the tensile strength of this composite material
crease its poisson’s ratio.
and decrease

Young's modulus [MPa]

2400 2348
2282
2300
2208
2200
2135
2100 2075

2000
Fig. 2. Random distribution of random short fibers reinforced composite 2000

1900
III. EFFECT OF THE BRICK SIZE ON ITS EFFECTIVE
EFFECTIV ELASTIC
1800
PROPERTIES
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%
In previous studies, different sizes of specimens were used VF
for the mechanical characterization of raw earth bricks, hence
the idea of studying the effect of brick size on the mechanical
mechanica
properties of the earthen-straw
straw composite material. Fig. 4. Effect of the fiber volume fraction on young modulus of the earthen
To do so, we designed 3D geometries whose distribution straw composite material
and geometry of the fibers are random with different sizes of
specimens for a 5% of fibers filling rate.. TABLE II. groups Poisson's ratio
together the results founded for the 8 samples where the 0,385
dimensions of the test piece were varied up to 21 times the 0,380
0,380
0,377
initial size. The main information that can be retained from 0,375
0,375
these cases,
es, it is that the more we increase the volume of the 0,372
0,370
brick, the more the calculation time increases. Indeed, it took 0,370
0,367
us just 5 min to calculate the thermal properties associated with 0,365

the first brick while the time elapsed to obtain the results of the 0,360
8th brick was 6h31min , which is equal to 65 times longer than
0,355
the initial time. 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%

VF
Effect of brick size on mechanical properties
2100 0,4000
2090 2075 2075 2077 2077 2078 2078 2078
2080 2073 Fig. 5. Effect of the fiber volume fraction on Poisson’s ratio of the earthen
0,3900
Poisson's ratio

2070 straw composite material

Eavg(MPa)

2060
2050 0,3771 0,3772 0,3771 0,3770 0,3770 0,3770 0,3770 0,3770 0,3800
2040 V. THE MODEL VALIDATION
2030
0,3700
2020
2010
For the validation of the numerical results of Ansys
2000 0,3600 material designer modeling, a comparison was performed with
1 5 8 11 13 16 19 21 the results of the existing analytical models as illustrated
Vbrick/Vref in Fig. 6 and Fig. 7. The references presented in this paper
pertain to the lower bound of Reuss and the upp upper bound of
Eavg(MPa) Poisson's ratio (νavg)
Voigt [17][18],, the lower and upper bounds of Hashin and
Shtrikman [19][20] and analytical
analytica estimation model of Mori-
Fig. 3. Effect of the brick size on its mechanical properties Tanaka [21][22]. Compared to analytical methods, the results
of ANSYS material designer simulation exhibit great
Based on Fig. 3,, it can be concluded that the brick size accuracy. TABLE III. and TABLE IV. represent the level of
didn’t influence the mechanical properties of the earthen straw accuracy achieved of each analytical model compared to Ansys
composite material. Thus, the REV of the raw earth brick has digital simulation results.

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 TABLE II. ELASTIC PROPERTIES OF STRAW FIBERS AND EARTHEN MATRIX FOR DIFFERENT BRICK SIZES

Brick
Brick E11 E22 E33 Eavg Time elapsed to have
Lx (mm) Ly (mm) Lz (mm) volume Vbrick/Vref ν12 ν13 ν23 νavg
reference (MPa) (MPa) (MPa) (MPa) mechanical results
(mm^3)

1 40 20 60 48000 1 2075,30 2073,80 2076,50 2075,20 0,3778 0,3767 0,3768 0,3771 [Link].1658767
2 40 40 160 256000 5 2072,00 2071,80 2073,90 2072,57 0,3775 0,3769 0,3770 0,3772 [Link].8464078
3 40 60 160 384000 8 2074,00 2074,90 2076,40 2075,10 0,3774 0,3770 0,3768 0,3771 [Link].3852254
4 40 80 160 512000 11 2076,10 2076,00 2077,80 2076,63 0,3774 0,3768 0,3769 0,3770 [Link].9353289
5 40 100 160 640000 13 2076,20 2077,80 2077,90 2077,30 0,3771 0,3771 0,3769 0,3770 [Link].1783358
6 40 120 160 768000 16 2077,10 2078,60 2078,30 2078,00 0,3770 0,3771 0,3769 0,3770 [Link].9200542
7 40 140 160 896000 19 2077,40 2078,00 2078,60 2078,00 0,3772 0,3770 0,3769 0,3770 [Link].1252323
8 40 160 160 1024000 21 2077,40 2079,10 2078,60 2078,37 0,3769 0,3771 0,3770 0,3770 [Link].4696278

Young's modulus [MPa]

2800
2600
2400
2200 Ansys material designer modeling
2000 Reuss lower bound
1800
Voigt upper bound
1600
1400 Hashin & Strikman lower bound
1200 Hashin & Strikman upper bound
1000 Mori-Tanaka's approximation
5% 10% 15% 20% 25%

Vf

Fig. 6. Comparison between numerical results and analytical models for young modulus

Poisson's ratio
0,400
0,380
0,360 Ansys material designer modeling
0,340
Reuss lower bound
0,320
0,300 Voigt upper bound
0,280 Hashin & Strikman lower bound
0,260
Hashin & Strikman upper bound
0,240
5% 10% 15% 20% 25% Mori-Tanaka's approximation

Vf

Fig. 7. Comparison between numerical results and analytical models for poisson’s ratio

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 As perspective, mechanical experiment will be performed
TABLE III. LEVEL OF ACCURACY ACHIEVED COMPARED TO THE ANSYS in order to compare the results of the present model with
DIGITAL SIMULATION FOR YOUNG MODULUS RESULTS
realistic data.
Fiber volume
5% 10% 15% 20% 25%
fraction
Reuss lower
99,3% 99,4% 99,2% 99,1% 99,6%
Definition of material properties
bound
Voigt upper
97,0% 93,4% 90,7% 88,2% 85,4%
bound
Hashin & Selection of microstructure type
Strikman lower 99,8% 98,8% 98,2% 97,5% 96,3%
bound
Hashin &
Strikman upper 98,2% 95,7% 93,8% 92,0% 89,9% Addition of reinforcement and matrix
bound materials
Mori-Tanaka's
99,4% 98,0% 97,0% 96,1% 94,6%
approximation

TABLE IV. LEVEL OF ACCURACY ACHIEVED COMPARED TO THE ANSYS Creation of the geometry
DIGITAL SIMULATION FOR POISSON RATIO RESULTS

Fiber volume
5% 10% 15% 20% 25%
fraction
Reuss lower Definition and Selection of meshing
98,5% 97,0% 95,6% 94,4% 93,5% parameters
bound
Voigt upper
97,4% 98,1% 97,3% 96,7% 96,0%
bound
Hashin &
Strikman lower 98,9% 99,0% 98,5% 97,9% 97,6%
bound Choice of the material anisotropy and
Hashin & selection of the boundary conditions
Strikman upper 98,4% 100,0% 99,9% 99,7% 99,7%
bound
Mori-Tanaka's
98,5% 99,8% 99,6% 99,3% 99,3%
approximation Fig. 8. Flowchart of the steps used in Ansys Material designer

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