Deriving global material properties of a microscopically heterogeneous medium - computational homogenisation and opportunities in visualisation

Abstract

In order to derive the overall mechanical response of a microscopically material body, both the theoretical and the numerical framework of multi scale consideration coined as computational homogenisation is presented. Instead of resolving the actual heterogeneous microstructure in all detail for its simulation, representative micro elements are considered which provide the material properties for the coarse or rather scale. This procedure allows for a smaller and less inexpensive computation. However both the chance and challenge of visualising the decisive features arise on two scales.