This work addresses the modeling of the mechanical response of cold joints in polymers reinforced with short fibers, focusing on two key aspects. The first concerns the influence of the choice of closure approximation on the elastic properties of the homogenized composite, while the second pertains to the modeling of phenomena present in cold joints that contribute to the degradation of mechanical behavior at these locations. In the first part, we computed the elastic properties of the composite across the full range of possible orientation states by varying the approximations, and through analysis of the resulting values, we found that the choice of approximation has no significant impact. In the second part, we extended a numerical model from the literature by incorporating initial damage and its evolution at the joint interface, demonstrating that this approach enables the description of the aforementioned phenomena and provides an adequate model of the mechanical behavior at the joint.
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