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Original article

Journal of Reinforced Plastics and


Composites
Finite element models of natural fibers 0(0) 1–19
! The Author(s) 2018
and their composites: A review Reprints and permissions:
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DOI: 10.1177/0731684418755552
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Xiaoshuang Xiong1,2,3,4, Shirley Z Shen4, Lin Hua2,3,5,


Jefferson Z Liu6, Xiang Li7, Xiaojin Wan2,3,5 and Menghe Miao8

Abstract
Finite element method has been widely applied in modeling natural fibers and natural fiber reinforced composites.
This paper is a comprehensive review of finite element models of natural fibers and natural fiber reinforced composites,
focusing on the micromechanical properties (strength, deformation, failure, and damage), thermal properties (thermal
conductivity), and macro shape deformation (stress–strain and fracture). Representative volume element model is the
most popular homogenization-based multi-scale constitutive method used in the finite element method to investigate
the effect of microstructures on the mechanical and thermal properties of natural fibers and natural fiber reinforced
composites. The representative volume element models of natural fibers and natural fiber reinforced composites at
various length scales are discussed, including two types of geometrical modeling methods, the computer-based modeling
method and the image-based modeling method. Their modeling efficiency and accuracy are also discussed.

Keywords
Natural fibers, natural fiber reinforced composites, mechanical and thermal properties, finite element modeling

Introduction
by plant variety and growth conditions, such as place
Natural fibers (NFs) are promising alternatives to con- of origin and weather. It is a challenging task to ana-
ventional synthetic fibers, such as glass fiber and lyze how the complicated microstructures of NFs and
carbon fiber, as reinforcements in composites because NFRCs affect the macroscopic behaviors, and then
of their environmental and economic advantages. predict the macroscopic properties of the targeted
Compared to synthetic fibers, NFs are abundant, bio- materials. Compared with experiment methods, FEM
degradable, lower cost, and recyclable, which make
them widely accepted by automobile industry,1,2 textile
industry,3,4 and construction industry.5–7 The effects of 1
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Wuhan University of
NFs such as hemp,5 jute,8 kenaf,9,10 bamboo,11 and Technology, Wuhan, China
flax12 on the mechanical strength, stiffness, thermal 2
Hubei Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology of Automotive
and tribological properties of composite structures Components, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China
3
have been investigated by many researchers. With the Hubei Collaborative Innovation Center for Automotive Components
Technology, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China
increasing use of natural fiber reinforced composites 4
CSIRO Manufacturing, Clayton South, Australia
(NFRCs), it becomes imperative to efficiently design 5
School of Automotive Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology,
and develop NFRCs for optimal performance. Wuhan, China
6
Because of large variability, high cost, and low efficien- Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Monash
University, Clayton, Australia
cy associated with experiments for NFs and NFRCs, 7
Pressure Vessel Division, China Special Equipment Inspection and
researchers increasingly employ computational meth- Research Institute, Beijing, China
8
ods for simulating the mechanical and thermal proper- CSIRO Manufacturing, Waurn Ponds, Australia
ties of NFs and NFRCs.
Corresponding author:
Finite element method (FEM) is increasingly used in Lin Hua, Wuhan University of Technology, 122 Luoshi Road, Wuhan,
modeling of NFs and the design of NFRCs.7,13–15 Hubei 430070, China.
The microstructure of NFs is complex and is affected Email: hualin@whut.edu.cn
2 Journal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites 0(0)

is of great efficiency and convenience to study the prop- concentric cylinders with a small channel in the middle
erties of NFs and NFRCs. Using FEM, it is possible to called the lumen. The two cell walls are termed as pri-
successfully study the effects of several parameters, mary cell wall and secondary cell wall. The secondary
such as reinforcement type, aspect ratio, orientation, cell wall is further subdivided in three layers: S1, S2,
and volume fraction of NFs, on the mechanical and and S3 from the inner to the outer,17 as shown in
thermal properties of NFRCs. Furthermore, the Figure 1. The secondary cell wall is mainly composed
mechanical and thermal properties of NFRCs, such of lignin, hemicellulose, and cellulose disposed in a heli-
as Young’s modulus, Poisson’s ratio, density, and ther- cal structure. The helical microstructure, the disloca-
mal conductivity, can be used in FEM to predict the tions and the mechanical properties of the
mechanical strength and thermal performance of com- constituents along with the fiber geometrical shape
ponents made of NFRCs. have a great effect on the mechanical properties of
There are different finite element (FE) models for these bast fibers.18
various NFs and NFRCs at different scale levels. It is Meso-scale RVEs of hemp fibers were developed by
of great importance to thoughtfully investigate the ben- Ilczyszyn et al.19 to investigate the mechanical proper-
efits and limitations of different FE models. The main ties of hemp fibers with different geometric profiles.
objective of this paper is to review published FE A digital imaging method was applied to obtain the
modeling techniques for designing and predicting real geometric profile of hemp fibers. Five different
the mechanical and thermal properties of NFs methods to describe the fiber cross section were pro-
and NFRCs. posed to build three-dimensional (3D) models of the
hemp fiber used in the RVEs. Through comparing the
simulations and experimental results, the polygon
FE models for NFs cross section was found to be more accurate than the
NFs consist of cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, and circular one.
pectin. The properties of NFs are determined by the 3D elastic-plastic RVE models at micro-scale were
microstructure and the mechanical properties of established by Nilsson and Gustafsson18 to study the
the constituents. Different NFs have different complex tensile behavior of hemp and flax fibers, taking into
microstructures, which influence their macro-scale account the influence of fiber diameter, material non-
behaviors. Characterization of the macro-mechanical linear action, and fiber’s microstructure. In their
properties of NFs should be mutually verified with models, only the secondary cell wall layer of hemp
micro-scale analysis in order to understand and fiber was modeled. The secondary cell wall layer was
master the material designs.14 Owing to the complexity modeled as a thick walled tube and was made up of
of structures across multiple length scales, truss elements with the mechanical properties of cellu-
homogenization-based multi-scale computational tech- lose embedded in 3D continuum elements with the
nique is an efficient way to investigate relationships properties of hemicellulose. Furthermore, rotating the
between micro-structures and macro-behaviors.
The most popular homogenization-based multi-scale
constitutive method in FEM is Representative
Volume Element (RVE).16 The RVE is assumed to
have a micro-length much smaller than the macro-
continuum, which is a size large enough to capture
the microscopic heterogeneities in an averaged sense.
Using the RVE, statistically relevant features of natural
material can be represented by a uniform microstruc-
ture. This review attempts to show the RVEs at
different length scales for the investigation of micro-
mechanical properties of NFs in the literature.

Hemp and flax fiber


Hemp and flax are fast growing annual plants, which
yield bast fibers with good mechanical and thermal
properties. Hemp and flax fibers have complicated
microscopic structures and consist of elementary
fibers glued together in bundles by pectins. The elemen-
tary fibers are composed of two cell walls arranged as Figure 1. The structure of a flax fiber cell.17
Xiong et al. 3

relevant nodes of cellulose truss elements around the z- cross-sectional features with a constant wall area.
axis produced the dislocations of hemp fibers. FE Results showed that the degree of ellipticity had a
models with and without dislocations are shown in strong influence on the tensile behavior of the fiber,
Figure 2(a) and (b), respectively. The mechanical prop- especially the shape of the nonlinearity behavior.
erties of cellulose and hemicellulose were defined as The geometrical effect was significantly related and
linear elasticity20 and elastic plasticity,17 respectively. coupled with the cellulose microfibrils angle and the
Results showed that the elastic stiffness decreased viscoelastic properties of the fiber.
with the increase of fiber diameter. This is due to the The FE model of Nilsson and Gustafsson18 repre-
increase of dislocation angle. In addition, simulation sents only the secondary cell wall. The FE models were
results of fiber’s stress–strain relations using the strain used to investigate the influence of dislocations and the
hardening model for the hemicellulose showed good hemicelluloses plasticity on the tensile behavior of flax
agreement with the experiment results of Baley.17 fiber.18 However, the fiber morphological and structur-
The hemicellulose and cellulose are polymers. A vis- al rearrangement under stressing were ignored. In order
coelastic model may be better than the elastic-plastic to reach a better understanding, Thuault et al.13 devel-
model to describe nonlinear tensile behavior of elemen- oped an FE model to explain the characteristic shape of
tary hemp fibers. In light of this, 3D viscoelastic FE tensile stress–strain curve of flax fiber, considering the
models were built by Trivaudey et al.21 to evaluate the cell wall thickness, the microfibrils angles, and bio-
contribution of viscoelastic strain, cellulose microfibril chemical components. The fiber was represented by
reorientation, and shear strain-induced crystallization three concentric cylinders to represent the S1, S2, S3
of the amorphous paracrystalline components to the cell wall layers and the lumen. MFA was fixed at 45
macroscopic tensile behavior of the fiber. An S2 layer for S1 and S3; whereas S2 angle was 10 . A special
of elementary hemp fiber was developed using a single- element type was used to model the synergistic effect
layered, hollow, thick-walled cylinder made of an of crystalline cellulose and hemicellulose. The compos-
orthotropic material having a helical orientation (cor- ite element consisted of a quadratic 3D element (20
responding to the cellulose microfibril orientation). nodes) crossed by a one-dimensional (1D) bar. They
Owing to the experimental results of Thygesen and found that the fiber ultrastructure, especially the S2
Gierlinger,22 a microfibril angle (MFA) of 11 was layers thicknesses and MFA, strongly influenced the
used for the bulk regions of fiber, and an MFA of flax fiber longitudinal Young’s modulus.
30 was used for the dislocation areas. Viscoelasticity Flax fiber bundles often include between two and
model of wall, evolution law of MFA and strain- few tens of finite length elementary fibers joined togeth-
induced crystallization law of the cellulose microfibril er by a pectin cement that can be considered as aligned
were adopted in the FE models. Results showed that short-fiber composites. The fiber bundle model was first
the viscoelastic model could successfully simulate the proposed by Daniels25 to study the ultimate failure. It
nonlinear tensile behavior of hemp fibers.23 The initial has been further developed by many researchers26–31 in
and tangent apparent rigidity values of fiber were both the last few decades. Beakou and Charlet32 first devel-
significantly influenced by proportion of dislocations. oped a RVE of flax fiber bundles, as shown in Figure 3,
Del Masto et al.24 further proposed a numerical simu- to study the tensile properties of the bundles taking
lation on the relationship between the cross-sectional into account the mechanical behavior of the middle
shape of primary hemp fibers and their tensile behavior lamella at the interface between two fibers. A bilinear
based on the work of Trivaudey et al.21 Real and cohesive zone model was used to describe the mechani-
elliptical simplified cross-sectional shapes were investi- cal behavior of the middle lamella, which was consistent
gated, respectively. In their FE models, the degree of with the experimental curves.33 The bundle strength
ellipticity of the section was used to define different values obtained from the numerical simulations were

Figure 2. Finite element model (a) without dislocations and (b) with dislocations, hemicellulose to the left and embedded cellulose
to the right.18
4 Journal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites 0(0)

Figure 3. Optical micrograph-based reconstruction of bundle geometry: (a) optical micrographs of bundle cross-section,
(b) idealized geometry of the bundle cross-section, and (c) a quarter of the reconstructed bundle geometry.32

in good agreement with the experimental data. The elastic isotropic shell elements and axial connectors
bundle strength decreased with the increase of the with non-linear rigidity between nodes along the
bundle length at low gauge lengths, while it almost edges of the shell element, which was based on the
remained constant when the gauge length was greater superposition of a discrete approach.37,38 The elastic
than the mean fiber length. properties of shell elements were obtained from the
Few researches have investigated the tensile behav- bias extension test, as well as the non-linear rigidities
ior of NF woven fabrics, although NF woven fabrics of axial connectors were gained through the uniaxial
are widely used in NFRCs. The non-linear zone in the tensile test. On the basis of the proposed constitutive
tensile behavior of woven fabrics was investigated for model, the forming models of flax woven fabrics were
glass fiber or carbon fiber.34,35 A new constitutive established. In the forming simulations, the draw-in
model through the mechanical properties test of flax and the shear angles of the woven reinforcement were
woven fabric was proposed by Tephany et al.36 to sim- particularly sensitive to the non-linear tensile behavior
ulate the preforming of woven textiles under different of woven fabrics. Furthermore, the coupling between
load condition. A ‘‘unit cell’’ (UC) was built using the in-plane shear and non-linear tensile behavior was
Xiong et al. 5

of great importance to model the woven fabric and degree of crystallinity of cellulose, MFA, cell-
preforming. wall thickness, and macro-fiber and matrix porosity,
on the mechanical properties of macro-fiber and bulk
Wood fiber wood specimen. It was found that the longitudinal
Young’s modulus of Palmetto bulk wood (Ebw)
As a successful historical application in protective
increased with the increase of cellulose volume fraction
structures, wood has been studied as a potential bio-
and degree of cellulose crystallinity. In contrast, the
inspiration to design engineering composites with
Ebw decreased with the increase of macro-fiber porosity
enhanced mechanical behaviors.39–41 Wood is made
and matrix porosity.
of macro-fiber reinforcements embedded in a softer
porous matrix and the macro-fibers are bundles of
micro-fibers of approximately hexagonal tubular Bamboo fiber
shapes.40 Numerical models have been developed to Bamboo is a natural composite material consisting of a
estimate and analyze the fracture, damage, and failure parenchymatic matrix with radially arranged fiber bun-
of the materials.14,42–48 dles as reinforcements. The fiber density,49–51 the atac-
In order to calculate the material macroscopic tostele distribution of fiber bundles,52–56 and the stem
response at different material scales (cell-wall, macro- segmentation into regions of nodes and internodes57
fiber, and bulk wood) and then analyze the influence of are the major factors to determine bamboo’s mechan-
some micro-structural features on macroscopic proper- ical properties.
ties, Saavedra Flores and Haldar14 proposed a A two-node long bamboo stem under tension, tor-
homogenization-based multi-scale FE model of sion, and bending loads was simulated by Silva et al.58
Palmetto wood using sequential four different RVEs. They considered different material models, including a
The RVEs consisted of the wood microfibril RVE (at homogeneous isotropic model, a functionally graded
the nanometer level), two micro-fiber RVEs (at the material model, and a homogeneous orthotropic
micrometer scale), and the bulk wood RVE (at the mil- model. Chand et al.59 simulated and analyzed the ten-
limeter scale), as shown in Figure 4. The microfibril sile and flexural properties of bamboo through defining
RVE represented the wood cell-wall composite materi- different material properties of bamboo in tensile load
al which was formed by cellulose, hemicellulose and simulation (a transversely isotropic material with nine
lignin, and the bulk wood RVE represented an arrange- elastic constants) and in flexural load simulation (an
ment of several macro-fibers distributed periodically in isotropic material), respectively. Using the different
the porous matrix. The micro-fiber RVEs represented material properties of bamboo, simulations of tensile
the cell with thick walls inside the macro-fibers and the strength and flexural strength were in good agreement
cell with thinner walls outside the macro-fibers, respec- with the experiment results. Fu et al.60 proposed an FE
tively. On the basis of sequential four different RVEs, model to analyze the shear capacity parallel to the
FE models of the individual macro-fiber and bulk bamboo culm axis using brittle fracture mechanics
wood specimen were built to study the influence of and assuming that the bamboo has a gradient elastic
microstructure parameters, such as volume fraction modulus. All the work of bamboo mentioned above

Figure 4. Representative volume elements adopted to model the constitutive response of Palmetto wood at different length
scales.14
6 Journal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites 0(0)

focused on the macro mechanical properties assuming on the homogenization-based method, considering
uniform material properties in the cross section and that the micro constituents are uniformly and regularly
gradient material properties along the culm axis. In distributed in the NFs. Therefore, the traditional RVEs
order to further investigate the effects of microstruc- allow the analysis of the effects of uniform and ideal-
tures on the mechanical properties (elastic moduli and ized microstructure on the mechanical properties of
compressive strength) of bamboo, 3D FE models of NFs through directly building the regular geometric
bamboo fiber meshed directly on the X-ray microto- model in the FE software. Fortunately, with the devel-
mography of bamboo sample were developed by opment of 3D imaging technique, the complex and
Palombini et al.61 as shown in Figure 5. The tetrahedral non-unidirectional micro-structural 3D geometry for
elements were used for the mesh of parenchyma and the NFs can be obtained and input into the FE soft-
the sclerenchyma (excluding their porosity), while the ware. FE meshes can be built directly from the micro-
large lumina of the xylem and the phloem was pre- structural 3D imaging geometry.
served. The axial compressive strength of the assembly
model in the finite element analysis (FEA) was much
lower (>60%) than that via the rule of mixtures, which FE models for NFRCs
was consistent with the experiment result. NFRCs are increasingly used in the manufacturing and
As a brief summary, this section reviews the FE engineering fields for their low-cost, lightweight, envi-
models of different NFs, including the hemp fiber, ronmentally friendliness, and high specific mechanical
flax fiber, wood fiber, and bamboo fiber. Different performance. For different application conditions and
RVEs of NFs at multi-scales including the meso-scale purposes, different types of NF aggregations are used
and micro-scale are discussed and presented in Table 1. as reinforcements, such as oriented long fibers, random
At meso-scale, the micromechanical properties of NFs short fibers, fiber fibrils, woven fabrics. The type of
can be predicted via the morphological characteristics fiber aggregation significantly affect the material prop-
of the fiber and the arrangement and distribution of erties of the final composites. Furthermore, the distri-
fiber bundles. However, the available RVEs at the bution, aspect ratio, volume fraction of NF in the
meso-scale only focused on NFs with highly idealized matrix also significantly influence the properties of
microstructures and ignored any defect or damage in composites. In past few decades, FE modeling has
the NFs, which significantly influences the strength. been used to investigate the mechanical and thermal
Furthermore, NF yarns as one significant meso-scale properties of NFRCs. This section will review FE
structure, the strength of which is greatly influenced by models of the complex structures of NFRCs to assist
the geometry of fiber trajectory,62,63 have not been composites design and application.
investigated using FEM.
In the RVEs at the micro-scale, the MFA, fiber cell
wall thickness, micro holes, and mechanical properties
FE models for thermal properties of NFRCs
of constituents can be taken into account through the The thermal models of NFRCs have been mostly
complex 3D geometry establishment, special element focused on the investigation of two aspects: microstruc-
application, and material property setting in the FE ture of NFs and macro distribution of NFs in relation
software. The traditional RVEs are developed based to the thermal properties of the composites.

Figure 5. Numerical analysis on mCT bamboo: (a) axial compressive loading and boundary conditions, (b) discretized assembly
model with tetrahedral meshes and (c) detail of contour meshes for the sclerenchyma (Sc) and parenchyma (Pa) with the void lumina
regions of xylem (Xy), and phloem (pH).61
Xiong et al. 7

Table 1. FE modeling of natural fibers at different length scale.

Researcher(s) Material Length scale FE model Research summary

F Ilczyszyn Hemp fiber Meso-scale


3D elastic model of a single Tensile behavior of fibers with different geometric
et al.19 fiber profiles
Nilsson and Hemp fiber Micro-scale 3D elastic-plastic model of a Tensile behavior of fibers, taking into account the
Gustafsson18 and flax secondary cell wall layer influence of fiber diameter, material non-linear
fiber action and fiber’s microstructure
Trivaudey Hemp fiber Micro-scale 3D viscoelastic model of a Influence of several physical mechanism such as
et al.21 secondary cell wall layer viscoelastic strain, cellulose microfibril reor-
ientation, and shear strain-induced crystalliza-
tion of the amorphous paracrystalline
components on the tensile behavior of fibers
Del Masto Hemp fiber Micro-scale 3D viscoelastic model of a Relationship between the cross-sectional shape of
et al.24 secondary cell wall layer fibers and their tensile behavior
Thuault et al.13 Flax fiber Micro-scale 3D elastic model of a single Influence of cell wall thickness, microfibrils angles
fiber and biochemical components on the tensile
behavior of fiber
Beakou and Flax fiber Meso-scale 3D cohesive model of fiber Influence of cohesive behavior of the middle
Charlet32 bundles bundles lamella at the interface between two fibers on
the tensile properties of the bundles
Tephany et al.36 Woven flax Meso-scale 2D model of woven fabric Influence of non-linear tensile behavior on the
fabric using shell elements with woven fabric preforming
connectors
Saavedra Flores Wood fiber Micro-scale and Multi-scale 3D elastic model Influence of microstructure parameters, such as
and Haldar14 meso-scale of fiber volume fraction and degree of crystallinity of
cellulose, microfibril angle (MFA), cell-wall
thickness on the mechanical properties of fiber
Palombini Bamboo fiber Micro-scale 3D mCT-based discretized Influence of microstructure parameters, such as
et al.61 model of bamboo parenchyma, sclerenchyma and the large lumina
of the xylem and the phloem on the com-
pressive strength of fiber
FE: finite element; RVE: representative volume element.

In the FE models of traditional fiber reinforced com-


posites (FRCs), the fiber was always assumed to be a
homogeneous solid and its microstructure was not
taken into account.64–66 However, the microstructure
of NFs, such as hemp and flax, is comprised of solid
region and lumen, which influence the transverse ther-
mal conductivities of NFs. To address this issue, two-
dimensional (2D) RVE FE models of NFRCs have
been built,5,67,68 as shown in Figure 6. The effective
thermal conductivity of the composite in the FEA
can be calculated using
Figure 6. Representative volume element of a square cell
QL embedded with natural fiber bundle containing lumens.
keff ¼ (1)
ðT 1  T 0 Þ

where Q stands for the average value of the heat flux conduction properties. Their results showed that the
component, T1 and T0 are temperature boundary con- transverse thermal conductivity of NF was sensitive
ditions, and L is the side length of the square cell.69 to lumen size, but not sensitive to the shape and distri-
2D FE models were built by Liu et al.5 to evaluate bution of lumen. The transverse thermal conductivity
effects of the thermal conductivity of NFs in solid of NF obtained from FEA was in accordance with that
region and lumen size on the transverse thermal calculated from Hasselman–Johnson’s model.70
8 Journal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites 0(0)

Zheng67 investigated the effect of thermal property Devireddy and Biswas72 developed a 3D RVE model
of the solid region phase and lumen on the equivalent of banana-jute FRC to study the physical and thermal
anisotropic thermal property of the NF bundle. The properties both in the longitudinal and transverse
relationship between the thermal conductivities of the directions. Their RVE consisted of two banana fibers,
solid region phase, lumen and the NF bundle was two jute fibers and matrix. The effect of fiber loading,
established through polynomial fitting on the FEA thermal conductivity, specific heat capacity, thermal
results. It was found that the approximated realistic diffusivity, and thermal stability were investigated in
distribution of lumen in the fiber bundle should lead their simulations. They found that the longitudinal
to isotropic thermal property of the fiber bundle, which thermal conductivity, transverse thermal conductivity,
was in accordance with the results of Liu et al.5 heat capacity, and thermal diffusivity of the hybrid
Further, 2D hierarchical FE models were proposed composites decreased with the fiber loadings.
by Wang et al.68 to investigate the influence of the ther- FE modeling for the thermal properties of NFRCs is
mal conductivities of matrix and solid region, the presented in Table 2. Most of the works mentioned
volume fraction of fiber bundle and lumen on the effec- above focused on 2D RVE models for NFRCs with
tive thermal conductivity of the composite (bulk con- unidirectional fibers. With the increasing application
ductivity). They found that the volume fraction of fiber of NFRCs, it is imperative to expand FEM to the ther-
bundle had a more significant effect on the effective mal performance analysis of NFRCs with complex
thermal conductivity of the composite than the fiber reinforced structures such as random short-fiber
volume fraction of lumen. composites and textile structured composites, in which
Because of their significant portion of lumen, NFs the distribution and volume fraction of fibers would
exhibit much lower thermal properties than traditional affect the thermal conductivity in different directions.
fibers (glass and carbon). They can be used as thermal Furthermore, the defects in the fiber and damage in
insulators of cement composite materials to improve composites must be taken into the thermal FE model-
energy efficiency of buildings. Wang et al.6,7,71 had ing of NFRCs in the future.
developed different meso-scale FE models to investi-
gate the clustering effect of NFs on the effective ther- FE models for mechanical properties of NFRCs
mal conductivity of cement composites. A RVE model
was established to investigate the dominant parameters FE models on deformation and strength of NFRCs. There are
that control the effective thermal conductivity of six types of micromechanics models for the stiffness
cement filled with hemp fibers, including clustering prediction of aligned short-fiber composites, including
degree of fiber clusters, fiber volume fraction, fiber dilute model based on Eshelby’s equivalent inclusion,
and matrix thermal conductivity, and random clustered self-consistent model for finite-length fibers, Mori–
arrangement.6 It was found that the dominant param- Tanaka type model, bounding model, the Halpin–
eters controlling the effective thermal conductivity of Tsai equation and its extensions, and shear lag
composites are the fiber volume fraction, and the fiber model.73 Accurate stiffness prediction of short-fiber
and matrix thermal conductivity. composites can be obtained using these six microme-
To investigate the effects of clustering distribution of chanics models together with reasonable simplifying
fibers, a special n-sided Voronoi fiber/matrix element assumptions although micro defects in the matrix and
was developed by Wang et al.7 The special elements fiber/matrix interface properties are not considered in
consisted of a two-variable integral functional field these models. All the models are based on the assump-
that involved an independent non-conforming element tion that the geometrical shapes of fibers are ellipsoidal
interior temperature field and an auxiliary conforming or cylindrical, which deviate from NFs with irregular
element frame temperature field. They concluded that cross section shapes.19,74 Comparing with these micro-
the special n-sided fiber/matrix element could improve mechanics models, the FE RVE simulation is more
the computational efficiency and accuracy of the ther- effective and accurate for investigating the mechanical
mal analysis. Wang et al.71 also developed special properties of the composite material, taking into
n-sided interphase/fiber elements for modeling the ther- account of the properties of NFs and matrix, the
mal interaction behavior of randomly distributed hemp volume fraction, morphology and distribution of
fibers in cementitious matrix material with homoge- NFs, the interfacial properties between NFs and
neous interphase layers. This new method, independent matrix, and defects in the composite.
of the thickness of the interphase layer, can significant-
ly reduce mesh effort in the interphase/fiber regions 1. Short FRCs
and produce accurate calculations of the thermal
fields in the cement matrix, fibers and interphases, Two modeling methods, direct RVE method15,75 and
owing to the analytical nature of interior thermal fields. orientation averaging method,76,77 are often used in the
Xiong et al. 9

Table 2. FE modeling for the thermal properties of natural fiber reinforced composites.

Researcher(s) Material Finite element model Research summary

Liu et al.5 Natural fiber 2D RVE of the cross-section Evaluating the transverse thermal conductivity
of fiber of fiber considering the influence of lumens
Zheng67 Natural fiber 2D RVE of the cross-section Analyzing the anisotropic thermal conductivity
of fiber bundle of natural fiber bundle with numbered lumens
Wang et al.68 Natural fiber rein- 2D hierarchical RVEs of Calculating the transverse thermal conductivity
forced composite composite of composite using a two-step homogenization
procedure
Wang et al.6 Natural fiber rein- 2D RVE of the cross-section Evaluating the thermal conductivity of composite
forced composite of composite considering the clustering degree of fiber clusters
and fiber volume fraction
Wang et al.7 Natural fiber rein- 2D RVE of composite using Evaluating the effect of clustering distribution of
forced composite special n-sided Voronoi fiber on the thermal conductivity of composite
fiber/matrix elements efficiently by using special n-sided Voronoi fiber/
matrix elements
Wang et al.71 Natural fiber rein- 2D RVE of composite using Analyzing the thermal interaction behavior of ran-
forced composite special n-sided interphase/ domly distributed hemp fibers in cementitious
fiber elements matrix material with homogeneous interphase
layers using special n-sided interphase/fiber
elements
Devireddy and Hybrid natural fiber 3D RVE model of composite Evaluating the longitudinal thermal conductivity and
Biswas72 reinforced transverse thermal conductivity of composite
composite
FE: finite element; RVE: representative volume element.

Figure 7. Portion of mesh of arbitrarily distributed fibers embedded in (a) solid and (b) microcellular matrix used for general
models.15

FE modeling of short NFRCs. The direct RVE consists in Figure 7. It was found that the composites with
of sufficiently short NFs surrounded by the matrix. In microcellular voids had a possible shorter fracture
the orientation averaging method, the micromechanical path compared to the solid composites, because
properties of NFRCs are modeled by orientation aver- micro voids caused essential stress concentration in
aging approach of FEA results of a UC with a single the matrix.
fiber embedded in the matrix. Sliseris et al.75 developed 3D FE models to simu-
Kern et al.15 developed 3D FE models to investigate late mechanical properties of random distributed flax
the mechanical properties of polymeric composites short FRCs, in which they considered different fiber
reinforced with short, arbitrarily-distributed wheat aspect ratios, fiber defects, and fiber bundles. The flax
straw fibers and took into account the microcellular fiber was modeled as a linear isotropic elastic material
voids. The fibers were assigned in-plane orientation and the PP resin was modeled as a non-linear plastic
angles of 0 , 15 , 30 , 45 , 60 , 75 , 90 , 105 , with material.78 In addition, the defects of flax fibers and
equal numbers of fibers at each orientation, as shown interface between fiber bundles were modeled as a
10 Journal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites 0(0)

brittle material with a continuum damage mechanics pure shear, axial tension, shear and equi-biaxial tension
model. Their results showed that the plastic deforma- to derive the deformation parameters of UC. The
tion of the composites initiated at fiber endings and parameters were then input into the orientation aver-
around fiber defects, which was in good agreement aging approach to model the non-linear deformation of
with other studies.79 The simulation results agreed the composite. The prediction of stress–strain diagrams
well with experimental results in terms of elastic in tension of flax/polypropylene (PP) composites with
properties and nonlinear tensile stress–strain different fiber volume fractions showed a strong agree-
behavior. ment with experiment results.
In order to simplify the FE modeling process
and reduce the computing time for composites 2. Unidirectional continuous FRCs, hybrid laminated
with randomly distributed short-NF, Modniks and composites, and fabric reinforced composites
Andersons76 developed an FE model to estimate the Hosseini et al.81 developed RVE models to investigate
elastic properties of a UC (Figure 8(a)) consisting of the viscoelastic properties of NFRCs. The RVE models
an elementary flax fiber and a polymer matrix, and then comprised eight unidirectional cylindrical flax fibers and
predicted the stiffness using the orientation averaging matrix with perfect bonding assumed. The diameter of
approach. Assuming the UC as a transversely isotropic flax fibers depended on the fiber volume fraction. Six
material, its elastic constants were determined from five independent loading conditions (three axial loads and
loading modes (Figure 8(b)). The effective stiffness three shear loads) were applied on the RVE to obtain
tensor of a misaligned FRCs can then be evaluated time history stress–strain data. The linear viscoelastic
by the orientation averaging approach.80 Applying behavior of matrix and flax fiber were defined using
this method to flax/PP composites with nearly uniform Prony series expansion by the fitting of stress relaxation
fiber orientation distribution yielded a good agreement experiments. They found that the assumption of the
with experiment results. Using the orientation averag- linear viscoelasticity was reasonable and the model pre-
ing approach, Modniks and Andersons77 further pre- dicted the viscoelasticity of composites very well.
dicted the non-linear deformation of a short misaligned Zhong et al.82 developed multi-scale RVEs for the
flax FRC. The new UC consisted of the matrix, a fiber progressive damage prediction of flax PP composites.
and an interfacial layer of cohesive element. They per- A micro-scale RVE of unidirectional flax fiber compo-
formed FEA simulations of the UC under six load sites, as shown in Figure 9 (a), was built first to predict
conditions: transverse tension, transverse compression, the effective properties of the material including elastic

Figure 8. Schematic of (a) the unit cell comprising a fiber embedded in a block of matrix and (b) loading modes of the unit cell used
to evaluate its parameters of elasticity.76
Xiong et al. 11

Figure 9. (a) Representative volume element of a unidirectional flax fiber composite,82 (b) layer combination and mesh of the glass-
jute reinforced laminated composite,8 and (c) representative volume element model of a flax fiber fabric composite.75

constants and strength. Macro-scale analysis was then have also attracted attention because of its practical
executed to simulate the tensile and bending behaviors importance. Assarar et al.87 developed FE models of
of composite specimens using the results of micro-scale hybrid laminated composites to investigate the dynamic
analysis as inputs. In the micro-scale RVE, the damage property of composites consisting of different stacking
of flax fiber and matrix were taken into account; howev- sequences of hybrid fibers. They performed the FE sim-
er, the damage of interphase was ignored. Furthermore, ulations using ABAQUS software to study the free flex-
the stiffness degradation is also not taken into account in ural vibrations with a four-node multilayered shell finite
the material damage model, which is always a key point element S4. Specific damping coefficients in the longitu-
in the progressive damage analysis of composites.83–85 dinal, transverse, and in-plane shear directions of the
Reis et al.86 built a simple 3D FE model for the glass- material constituting the layer were introduced in their
hemp hybrid laminated composite. They studied the flex- FE models. An energy approach was developed to eval-
ural deformation of the composites in three-point bend- uate the structural damping of the composites. It was
ing test. The materials of each layer were assumed to be concluded that the position of flax layers within the
continuous, homogeneous, and orthotropic linear elastic. hybrid composites played a major role on their bending
The specific static stiffness and strength of hybrid lami- stiffness and damping properties.
nated composite can compared with the glass laminated A RVE model of the flax fabric reinforced epoxy
composite. A 3D FE model of glass-jute reinforced lam- composite was developed by Sliseris et al.75 to calculate
inated epoxy composites, as shown in Figure 9(b), was the linear elastic properties and to study the non-linear
developed by Rafiquzzaman et al.8 to investigate the behavior of the composite by inputting the non-linear
overall mechanical behavior of the material. This FE tensile stress-strain curves of flax yarn and epoxy gained
model included a number of different layers, which was from experimental investigation.88 In the FE model, the
in accordance with real microstructure of hand lay-out RVE comprised a single layer of flax fabric, as shown in
composite plate. Each layer was assumed to be isotropic Figure 9(c). Applying different deformations to the
linear elastic. They noted that the maximum stress in the RVE, the mechanical properties of the composite were
length and thickness direction of the composite plate was obtained, including tensile modulus, tensile strength,
higher in the glass layer and jute layer than in the epoxy transversal Young’s modulus, in-plane shear modulus,
layer. This was consistent with the delamination and out of plane shear modulus, in-plane Poisson’s ratio,
fiber breakage observed in the fracture surface. and out of plane Poisson’s ratio, most of which were
Besides the extensive studies of the static mechanical difficult to be measured by experiments.
properties of hybrid NF reinforced laminated compo- FE modeling for the mechanical properties of
sites,8,86 the dynamic mechanical properties of composites NFRCs with different structures is listed in Table 3.
12 Journal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites 0(0)

Table 3. FE modeling for the mechanical properties of natural fiber reinforced composites.

Researcher(s) Material Model Research summary

Kern et al.15 Short fiber reinforced Direct 3D RVE model of Evaluating the effects of fibers and voids on
composite composite the tensile behavior of composite
Sliseris et al.75 Short fiber reinforced Direct 3D RVE model of Tensile behavior of composite considering
composite composite different fiber aspect ratios, fiber defects
and fiber bundles
Modniks and Short fiber reinforced Orientation averaging Young modulus of composite using the orien-
Andersons76 composite approach on the elastic tation averaging approach
properties of a unit cell
Modniks and Short fiber reinforced Orientation averaging Non-linear deformation of composite using
Andersons77 composite approach on the non-linear the orientation averaging approach on the
properties of a unit cell basis of a unit cell consisted of the matrix, a
fiber and an interfacial layer of cohesive
element
Hosseini et al.81 Unidirectional fiber Direct 3D RVE model of Viscoelastic properties of NFRCs using a 3D
reinforced composite RVE model of composite consisted of eight
composites unidirectional cylindrical flax fibers and
matrix
Zhong et al.82 Unidirectional fiber Multi-scale RVE models of Tensile and bending behaviors of the com-
reinforced unidirectional fiber posite considering the damage of flax fiber
composites composites and matrix
Reis et al.86 Hybrid fiber laminated 3D macro-scale model of Flexural deformation of the composite in
composite laminated composite three-point bending test
Rafiquzzaman Hybrid fiber laminated 3D macro-scale model of Tensile behavior of the composite
et al.8 composite laminated composite
Assarar et al.87 Hybrid fiber laminated 2D macro-scale model of Bending stiffness and damping properties of
composite laminated composite using the composite with different staking
shell elements sequences
Sliseris et al.75 Woven fiber fabric 3D RVE model of composite Tensile and shear properties of the compo-
reinforced sites by a non-linear plasticity model con-
composite sidering an isotropic hardening law
FE: finite element; RVE: representative volume element.

FE RVE method can successfully model the dimension, properties between the fiber and matrix were not
distribution, aspect ratio, and volume fraction of NF as taken into account. In the development of the RVE
well as the intrinsic mechanical properties of NF and model of the NF fabric reinforced composite, the key
matrix, and the NF/matrix interface properties to study step is the 3D geometrical modeling of the NF fabric.75
the micromechanical properties of NFRCs. Compared With the increasing application of hybrid NF rein-
with the direct RVE method, the orientation averaging forced laminated composites and NF fabric reinforced
method is much simpler and more convenient to use. composites to structural parts, more attention should
The direct RVE method includes a large number of be paid to the FE modeling on their mechanical
elements to describe the fiber misalignment and it properties.
often requires more computing time. In addition, the
interface properties between the NF and matrix are FE models on failure and damage of NFRCs. The mechanical
also difficult to model using the direct RVE method. failure of FRC may be caused by a complex combina-
It should be noted, however, that the orientation aver- tion of several mechanisms, including fiber fracture,
aging method can’t model fiber bundles, fiber defects interface failure, fiber debonding and pullout, matrix
and matrix voids in composites. Furthermore, the failure, and delamination.89–93 Therefore, it is of great
fibers with different aspect radios can be taken into importance to apply reasonable and effective failure
account in the direct RVE method, while the fiber and damage criteria in FEA models of FRC. Present
aspect radio must be uniform in the orientation aver- FE simulations for failure and damage of NFRCs are
aging method. mostly concentrated on the interface debonding
FE models of hybrid NF reinforced laminated com- between NF and matrix because the interface shear
posites were built at meso-scale and the interface strength is often quite low and decreases rapidly in
Xiong et al. 13

humid environment74,94 in comparison with carbon or fabric orientation (0 /90 and 45 /45 ) and sample
glass FRCs. width values. They found that the new FLC could sig-
nificantly improve the accuracy of the FEA prediction
1. Fracture and failure of NFRCs for forming depths in comparison with the Maximum
Strain failure criterion, especially for the 0 /90 orien-
Khaldi et al.95 developed FE models for Alfa FRCs to tation specimens. Panamoottil et al.98 proposed and
investigate micro-crack initiation and growth at the implemented an anisotropic continuum damage
matrix-fiber interphase, as shown in Figure 10. The model (CDM) into the FE models of composites con-
matrix was viscoelastic and the Alfa fiber was aniso- sisting of different structures and layers of flax fabrics.
tropically elastic. They adopted an energy method to The damage tensor of the anisotropic CDM was
predict damage initiation and to estimate crack propa- obtained through calculating the crack density of the
gation in the composites. A small debonding area was composites in different tensile loads.99 This model con-
built at the interphase between the fiber and the matrix sidered different stiffness degradation factors of the
to represent the defect of interphase. They found that a composites in different failure modes. They investigat-
crack initiated in the matrix under a load transverse to ed the stress–strain behavior and failure strength of the
the fiber axis would propagate perpendicular to the material under uniaxial tension. When yarn geometry
direction of the loading, when the interphase and the closely matching the measured geometry was used in
fiber were stiffer than the matrix. They concluded that the simulation, the simulated tensile strength showed
matrix edge cracks propagated more easily than inter- the minimum difference of only 3.1% from the exper-
nal matrix cracks. imental tensile strength.
3D FE models for fatigue analysis of flax FRCs were In summary, there are many fracture modes of
developed by Keck and Fulland96 to evaluate stress NFRCs such as fiber fracture, interface failure, fiber
intensity factor evolution along growing cracks, debonding and pullout, matrix failure, and delamina-
aiming to establish and fit fatigue crack growth rate tion. FEA can be used to investigate these different
curves by taking into account of the fiber volume frac- fracture modes by adopting failure criteria that are
tion and fiber direction. In their models, the materials consistent with the intrinsic material properties of the
were assumed to be homogeneous orthotropic, and fiber, matrix and interface as well as the load condition.
linear elastic fracture mechanics was adopted. They Developing and selecting an appropriate failure criteri-
found that the crack growth rate curves had a depen- on is the key to FE modeling for failure analysis
dence on fiber orientation and the highest fracture of NFRCs.
toughness appeared when the loading direction was
perpendicular to the fiber orientation. 2. Damage of NFRCs
A new Forming Limit Curve (FLC) for a flax fabric
reinforced PP composite were established through Interface damage of NFRCs occurs under mechanical
stretch forming experiments and implemented in the loading. Three methods are often used in FE
FE models by Wang et al.97 The new FLC had a func- models for interface damage analysis of FRCs. First,
tional relationship between the limiting strain and the a perfect bonding or an interphase is implemented for
strain ratio of the flax fibers. They simulated stretch boundary nodes around the fiber/matrix inter-
forming of the composite specimens with different face.100,101 Second, a frictional contact is introduced

Figure 10. Finite element model of matrix crack propagation.95


14 Journal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites 0(0)

to model the mechanical behavior of the fiber/matrix the L-lysine/CaCO3 coatings from the fiber surfaces. A
interface.102,103 Third, spring elements or cohesive ele- simple FE model was developed by Perrier et al.108 to
ments are introduced to define interphase with a con- verify the possibility of using laser shock test to study
stitutive law.104–106 the adhesion between fiber and matrix. They simulated
Alam et al.107 developed plane-stress FE simulations the laser shock wave propagation in the single hemp
for NFRCs by rebuilding the 2D topographical profiles yarn composite specimen under some particular spatial
from SEM images of biomimetically mineralized fibers loading distribution of laser shock. A tie-break contact
and contour-mapping the coating profiles. They ana- type was used to define yarn/resin interface. Three dif-
lyzed the shear strain in the rubber matrix near the ferent damage zones at the yarn/matrix interface were
surface of different amino acid/CaCO3 coatings. They observed in the simulation, which were similar to
found that the peak frequency of high strain points of experimental results.
L-lysine/CaCO3 coatings was higher than that of gly- FE models of fragmentation tests were developed by
cine/CaCO3 and b-alanine/CaCO3 coatings, indicating Guillebaud-Bonnafous et al.103 to investigate the adhe-
more interlocking points and lower detachment risk of sion properties of hemp yarn–matrix composites. Two
different contact interactions at interfaces were consid-
ered: a perfect bonding and a frictional contact. In their
models, Coulomb friction model was used to describe
the contact behavior of the frictional contact by adopt-
ing different friction coefficients. The fragmentation
patterns obtained from frictional contact models were
close to experimental results. The best fitting was
obtained with the friction coefficient of 0.7. They also
found a good agreement between experiments and sim-
ulations in terms of the interfacial shear strength and
isochromatic patterns of the equivalent principal
stresses in different yarn fragmentations given the
same friction coefficient.
Hbib et al.109 proposed a 2D FE model for a starch
composite reinforced by a single hemp fiber to study
Figure 11. Finite element model of a starchy composite the interfacial damage. The strength of interfacial
reinforced using a single hemp fiber.103 adhesion and the fiber orientation were investigated.

Table 4. FE modeling for damage and fracture of natural fiber reinforced composites.

Researcher(s) Material FE Model Research summary

Khaldi et al.95 Unidirectional fiber 2D micro-scale RVE model of Predicting the damage initiation and estimating
reinforced the cross section of the crack propagation in the composites using
composites composite an energy method
Keck and Unidirectional fiber 3D model of specimens for Analyzing the fatigue crack growth rate of the
Fulland96 reinforced fatigue tests specimen during fatigue tests
composites
Wang et al.97 Woven fabric rein- 2D model of specimens using Simulating the stretch forming of the composite
forced composite shell elements using a new forming limit curve
Panamoottil Woven fabric rein- 3D meso-scale RVE model of Investigating the stress-strain behavior and failure
et al.98 forced composite composite strength of the material under uniaxial tension
using an anisotropic continuum damage model
Alam et al.107 Short fiber reinforced 2D micro-scale RVE model of Evaluating the shear strain in the rubber matrix
composite composite near fiber/matrix interface using the perfect
bonding method
Guillebaud- Single yarn embedded 3D model of specimens for Simulating the fragmentation process of hemp
Bonnafous in matrix fragmentation tests yarn–matrix composites using the frictional
et al.103 contact method
Hbib et al.109 A single fiber rein- 2D micro-scale RVE model of Simulating the fiber/matrix interface damage using
forced composite composite 1D interface cohesive elements
FE: finite element; RVE: representative volume element.
Xiong et al. 15

In their FE model, the interface normal and tangential to model the failure and damage of NFRCs.
stiffness parameters were defined as constants, i.e. the Furthermore, the energy analysis is often adopted to
normal and tangential interfacial tractions being linear describe the crack propagation process in FE simula-
to displacements in both normal and sliding directions. tions of NFRCs.
The normal and tangential stiffness would decline to NFRCs are being increasingly used in many indus-
zero when the stress of interface element reached the trial fields, such as automotive,2 astronautic,111,112 and
critical strength. The hemp fiber and matrix were construction building industry,6,7,71 thanks to their
meshed with 2D plane elements that only had the environmental and economic advantages, high specific
degrees of freedom in X and Y directions. 1D interface mechanical properties and good acoustic and thermal
elements similar to the cohesive elements were imple- properties. NFRCs are used to be applied as non-
mented as switches between the hemp fiber and the structural materials in the industry.2 Structural parts,
matrix (Figure 11). The tangential stiffness affected such as Naca cowling,111 electronic rack,112 and auto-
the critical shearing force but not the overall composite mobile hood,113 have been made using NF fabric rein-
stiffness, whereas the normal stiffness affected the com- forced composites.
posite stiffness. The fiber orientation significantly Establishing appropriate FE models for the material
affected the stress–strain relation and the synergistic will drastically save design time and experiment cost.
action of shearing and tension at the interface. Establishing 3D geometric models of NF fabric, defin-
FE modeling for damage and fracture of NFRCs is
ing the fiber/matrix interfaces, and determining the
listed in Table 4. Overall, the perfect bonding, frictional
material properties of fiber, fabric and interfacial adhe-
contact, and cohesive elements have been applied in FE
sion are three key challenges in FE modeling of
simulations to model the mechanical behavior of the
NFRCs. For applications in automotive and astronau-
fiber/matrix interface. However, it is clear that the per-
tic structural materials, the FE modeling of NFRCs
fect bonding is excessively idealistic and is not always
should include thermal-mechanical coupled properties
consistent with experiment results.74 The frictional con-
tact can be used to simulate influences of interfacial and material dynamic performance. Furthermore, the
properties on the damage of NFRCs effectively and numerical modeling on progressive damage analysis of
accurately. But, it is difficult to determine the direct NFRCs may be a hot topic in the future.
relationship between the contact properties and the The more significant difference between NFs and
interfacial properties. Cohesive element method is conventional synthetic fibers is the irregular and
very effective and efficient to analyze the effect of inter- changeable cross-section of NFs along the length.19,24
facial properties on the mechanical properties by To improve simulation accuracy, future FE models
adjusting the stiffness parameters and the damage cri- should consider this feature. In addition, the discrete
terion of the cohesive elements, which is easy to realize distribution of the length of NFs should also be
in FE software. However, fiber pull-out tests110 or accounted. Two methods: computer-based geometric
microbond tests74,102 must be done first to obtain the modeling technology and lCT-based geometric model-
unique parameters for the cohesive properties. ing technology, can be used. Another research direction
is multi-scale FE models. These models should be
developed based on a comprehensive consideration of
Conclusions and future work
the microstructures, the volume fraction and distribu-
Recent progress of FE models for NFs and NFRCs is tion of NFs, the material properties of NFs and matrix,
reviewed. Multi-scale FE models are used to analyze and the interface properties of NFs and matrix.
the relationships between microstructures and proper-
ties of NFs and NFRCs. The RVE is the most popular Declaration of conflicting interests
homogenization-based multi-scale constitutive method
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with
used in the FE modeling to investigate the effect of
respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
microstructures on the mechanical and thermal prop-
article.
erties of NFs and NFRCs. Different microstructures
can be taken into account in RVEs of NFs and
Funding
NFRCs through complex geometry establishment, spe-
cial element application, and material property setting The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial sup-
in FE software. Two different methods are often used port for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
to investigate strength and deformation of short fiber article: The authors acknowledge the financial support from
NFRCs: the direct RVE approach and the orientation CSIRO Manufacturing and National Natural Science
averaging approach. The cohesive elements, perfect Foundation of China (No.51575417). Xiaoshuang Xiong
bonding, and frictional contact have been widely used also gratefully acknowledges the scholarship from China
16 Journal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites 0(0)

Scholarship Council (201606950038) which enabled the work 17. Baley C. Analysis of the flax fibres tensile behaviour and
at CSIRO in Australia. analysis of the tensile stiffness increase. Compos Part A
Appl Sci 2002; 33: 939–948.
18. Nilsson T and Gustafsson PJ. Influence of dislocations
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