What is the difference between RVE and Unit Cell ?
Submitted by sspadhee on Tue, 2008-02-19 08:47.
I have been working in composites for sometime now. In the literature I have found that the words "Representative Volume Element" (RVE) and "Unit Cell" (UC) are used frequently. Some authors treat them differently and some treat them same. I am little bit confused can anyone PLEASE clarify the situation or suggest some good papers to read.
Thanks In Advance.
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RVE and unit cell
Hi,
RVE and unit cell are actually the same. They both refer to a material point of interest where the local behavior is simulated. There is a slight catch, though. A RVE is supposed to be "representative", i.e. the volume element must be representative of the entire material. A unit cell on the other hand does not have to be representative. For e.g. in the case of polycrystal simulation in metal plasticity, a unit cell built up of 100 grains is assumed to be representative of the material behavior and is hence a RVE, whereas a unit cell with 10 grains, for e.g., is not representative and is referred to as a unit cell only and not as a RVE.
RVE and unit cell
RVE is not necessarily a unit cell and vice versa. RVE stands for a Representative Volume Element, that is a smallest piece of material that on given level of localization can be considered stuctureless.
I have been modeling porous materials for some time using unit cell approach. In some cases such as materials with non uniform mesostructure, a RVE consists of 5 to 10 unit cells with different geometries. Another good example is stucture discretisation using voronoi cells.
I would suggest you to read something on Cellular Solids Theory from Lorna Gibson. You can generally find some infos in books on continuum damage mechanics.