Computational multiscale modelling of material interfaces in electrical conductors

Material interfaces occur at various length scales and may exhibit significantly different properties than the surrounding bulk. Motivated by their importance for electrical engineering applications such as wire bonds and electrically conductive adhesives, the focus of the present work is on material interfaces in electrical conductors. In order to approximate the physical interphase (of finite thickness) as a (zero-thickness) cohesive zone-type interface in macroscale simulations, scale-bridging relations are established that relate the apparent electro-mechanical interface properties to the underlying microstructure. A finite element-based implementation is discussed with particular focus lying on the efficient calculation of the flux-type macroscale quantities and the associated generalised algorithmic consistent tangent stiffness tensors. Analytical solutions are derived for validation purposes and representative boundary value problems are studied.