Unified treatment of microscopic boundary conditions in computational homogenization method for multiphysics problems

Computational homogenization (so-called FE2) method is an effective tool to model complex behavior of heterogeneous media allowing direct coupling between the structure response and the evolving microstructure not only in purely mechanical problems but also in multiphysics problems [1]. The basic idea of this method is to obtain the macroscopic constitutive relationships from the resolution of the microscopic boundary value problem (BVP) defined on a representative volume element. This method does not requires any constitutive assumption at the macroscopic level, but an appropriate microscopic boundary condition has to be defined. Our work focuses on the unified treatment of the microscopic boundary condition in a multiphysics microscopic BVP. In particular, an efficient way to compute the tangent operator is developed for an arbitrary kind of boundary conditions.
When considering the FE2method, the homogenized stresses and homogenized tangents at every macroscopic integration points are required. From the energy consistency condition between macroscopic and microscopic problems, the homogenized stresses can be easily computed by the volumetric averaging integrals of the microscopic counterparts. The required homogenized tangents often follows a stiffness condensation from the microscopic stiffness matrix at the equilibrium state [2]. When using the stiffness condensation, the microscopic stiffness matrix needs to be partitioned, and dense matrices based on Schur complements (under a matrix form 𝐊̃ 𝑏𝑏=𝐊𝑏𝑏−𝐊𝑏𝑖𝐊𝑖𝑖−1𝐊𝑖𝑏) have to be estimated. The matrix operations based on Schur complements require a large time consuming and a lot of memory when increasing the number of degrees of freedom of the microscopic BVPs. This work proposes an efficient method allowing to compute the homogenized tangents without significant effort. The microscopic stiffness matrix does not need to be partitioned. The homogenized tangents are computed by solving a linear system, which is based on the linearized system at the converge solution of the microscopic BVP, with multiple right hand sides.
With proposed numerical improvements, the FE2 method is used in a fully thermo-mechanically-coupled simulation. The temperature-dependent elastoplastic behavior, thermal conduction as well as the heat conversion from the mechanical deformation are considered in the hyperelastic large strain framework.
[1]. Geers, M. G. D., Kouznetsova, V. G., Brekelmans, W. A. M., 2010. J. Comput. Appl. Math. 234 (7), 2175-2182.
[2]. Kouznetsova, V., Brekelmans, W. A. M., Baaijens, F. P. T., 2001. Comput. Mech. 27 (1), 37-48.