FE micromodel of a cord-rubber composite tube sample subjected to uniaxial tension

The aim of this study is to examine displacements, strains and stresses of a railway composite cord-rubber air brake tube undergoing uniaxial tension by microscale modelling. The micromodel is based on the macromodels (by matching the boundary conditions of the micromodels with displacements of the macromodels) created previously by authors of this article. The reinforcing yarns are described by an orthotropic, elastic material model, whereas the matrix has been described by a 2 parameter Mooney-Rivlin model, which all have been validated before by a uniaxial tensile test and a three-point bending test. Force-displacement curves of the micromodel and experimental results show a considerably good agreement. Failure of the reinforcement layers does not occur in case of the uniaxial tension of the composite tube sample, there was no failure event observed during the experiment of the tube sample. Load transfer mechanism has been demonstrated and characterized numerically by strain and stress results inside and between reinforcement layers (implying shear plays a dominant role in the load-transfer mechanism). The microscale nature of the FE model ensures that the strain and stress results are representative for the reinforcement layers.