Numerical relaxation analysis of carbon fiber reinforced polymers

Carbon fiber reinforced polymers are largely used to realize aerospace deployable structures. These structures are folded in launch configuration and then deployed in space for operational activities. Since the stowage of the structures in folded configuration occurs for long time, the understanding of viscoelastic properties of the material is essential to predict the structural behavior during both the deployment phase and the operational life. In this work, we performed a numerical relaxation analysis on representative volume element (RVE) of carbon fiber reinforced composites using a homogenization approach at microscale, in order to predict the effects of the matrix viscoelasticity on the structural performance of a deployable structure.