Reply To: First time at modelling composite (CFRP)

[peteroznewman]

RVE and ACP approaches serve different needs.

RVE takes a detailed definition of the materials in a unit cube to compute bulk properties to average out those details to allow a solution to the deformation of the structure with a small modeling effort. It may be useful to evaluate the stiffness of the initial design of the structure and make rapid design iterations to get to target values of stiffness or weight.

ACP by contrast maintains all the details of every ply in the stack to compute stress on a ply-by-ply basis for the whole structure which requires a larger modeling effort. This is useful to evaluate the stress in the structure and the margin of safety to ultimate failure.