How to model nanopores in a plate? 1

[mdama]

Hello
I Have a plate of 10*10 mm and the thickness is 0.1 mm. It has pores with 250 nm diameter all over the plate. The distance betwee each pore with the next one in a linear pattern is 470 nm. Does anyone know how I can model so many nanopores in the plate? Solidworks and Abaqus can not replicate a pore more than a specific value.
Should I consider a smaller geometry like RVE but how?
Thanks
Mohsen

 

[FEA way]

Don't try to model the full geometry of this plate, use some simplification instead. There are various models of porous materials (like Gurson's model) that use special parametetrs to describe the influence of pores on stress distribution in structure. RVE is also a good idea - you can use periodic boundary conditions for that.

 

[mdama]

Thank you. If I decide to use RVE, What should be the proper size for that? That's challenging. Is periodic boundary an option in FEA?

 

[FEA way]

Since it’s not random porosity but periodic structure you can define RVE easily. It must represent the whole volume correctly. Here’s a nice explanation with examples:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representative_elementary_volume

And when it comes to periodic BCs in Abaqus take a look at the article „Applying Periodic Boundary Conditions in Finite Element Analysis” by W. Wu et al. It feature the script code for Abaqus.

There’s also a Micromechanics Plugin for Abaqus/CAE.