A one-parameter generalized self-consistent model for isotropic multiphase composites

The classical generalized self-consistent model (GSCM) is recognized to be suitable and efficient for estimating the effective moduli of an isotropic composite consisting of an isotropic host matrix and an isotropic inclusion phase. The present work aims to enlarge the scope of the GSCM so that it becomes applicable to a good number of important situations where the phases cannot be differentiated as the host matrix and inclusions. This objective is achieved first by inserting into the unknown effective medium a coated composite sphere whose core is made of the unknown effective medium and whose coatings are formed of the constituent phases and then by imposing an energy equivalency condition. The equations thus obtained to characterize the effective bulk and shear moduli involve a microstructural parameter which turns out to be capable of describing in some sense how far a microstructure is from the host matrix/inclusion morphology. The important case of two-phase composites is studied in detail to illustrate the salient features of the proposed model.     

An explicit expression of the effective moduli for composite materials filled with coated inclusions

The obvious shortcoming of the generalized self-consistent method (GSCM) is that the effective shear modulus of composite materials estimated by the method can not be expressed in an explicit form. This is inconvenient in engineering applications. In order to overcome that shortcoming of GSCM, a reformation of GSCM is made and a new micromechanical scheme is suggested in this paper. By means of this new scheme, both the effective bulk and shear moduli of an inclusion-matrix composite material can be obtained and be expressed in simple explicit forms. A comparison with the existing models and the rigorous Hashin-Shtrikman bounds demonstrates that the present scheme is accurate. By a two-step homogenization technique from the present new scheme, the effective moduli of the composite materials with coated spherical inclusions are obtained and can also be expressed in an explicit form. The comparison with the existing theoretical and experimental results shows that the present solutions are satisfactory. Moreover, a quantitative comparison of GSCM and the Mori-Tanaka method (MTM) is made based on a unified scheme. The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under the Contract NO. 19632030 and 19572008, and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation     

An exact solution for the three-phase thermo-electro-magneto-elastic cylinder model and its application to piezoelectric–magnetic fiber composites

A three-phase cylindrical model for analyzing fiber composite subject to in-plane mechanical load under the coupling effects of multiple physical fields (thermo, electric, magnetic and elastic) is presented. By introducing an eigenstrain corresponding to the thermo-electro-magnetic-elastic effect, the complex multi-field coupling problem can be reduced to a formal in-plane elasticity problem for which an exact closed form solution is available. The present three-phase model can be applied to fiber/interphase/matrix composites, such that a lot of interesting thermo-electro-magnetism and stress coupling phenomena induced by the interphase layer are revealed. The present model can also be applied to fiber/matrix composites, in terms of which a generalized self-consistent method (GSCM) is developed for predicting the effective properties of piezoelectric–magnetic fiber reinforced composites. The effective piezoelectric, piezomagnetic, thermoelectric and magnetoelectric moduli can be expressed in compact explicit formulae for direct references and applications. A comparison of the predictions by the GSCM with available experimental data is presented, and interesting magnification effects and peculiar product properties are discussed. As a theoretical basis for the GSCM, the equivalence of the three sets of different average field equations in predicting the effective properties are proved, and this fact provides a strong evidence of mathematical rigor and physical realism in the formulation.     

A generalized self-consistent Mori-Tanaka model for predicting the effective moduli of the coated inclusion based composite materials

The weak point of the generalized self-consistent method (GSCM) is that its solution for the effective shear moduli involves determining the complicated displacement and strain fields in constitutents. Furthermore, the effective moduli estimated by GSCM cannot be expressed in an explicit form. Instead of following the procedure of GSCM, in this paper a generalized self-consistent Mori-Tanaka method (GSCMTM) is developed by means of Hill's interface condition and the assumption that the strain in the inclusion is uniform. A comparison with the existing theoretical and experimental results shows that the present GSCMTM is sufficiently accurate to predict the effective moduli of the coated inclusion-based composite materials. Moreover, it is interesting to find that the application of Hill's interface condition in volumetric domain is equivalent to the Mori-Tanaka average field approximation. This project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation.     

The effects of the interphase and strain gradients on the elasticity of layer by layer (LBL) polymer/clay nanocomposites

A synergistic stiffening effect observed in the elastic mechanical properties of LBL assembled polymer/clay nanocomposites is studied via two continuum mechanics approaches. The nanostructure of the representative volume element (RVE) includes an effective interphase layer that is assumed to be perfectly bonded to the particle and matrix phases. An inverse method to determine the effective thickness and stiffness of the interphase layer using finite element (FE) simulations and experimental data previously published in Kaushik et al. (2009), is first illustrated. Next, a size-dependent strain gradient Mori–Tanaka (M–T) model (SGMT) is developed by applying strain gradient elasticity to the classical M–T method. Both approaches are applied to LBL-assembled polyurethane–montmorillonite (PU–MTM) clay nanocomposites. Both two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) FE models used in the first approach are shown to be able to accurately predict the stiffness of the PU–MTM specimens with various volume fractions. The SGMT model also accurately predicts the experimentally observed increase in stiffness of the PU–MTM nanocomposite with increasing volume fraction of clay. An analogy between the strain gradient effect and the role of an interphase in accounting for the synergistic elastic stiffening in nanocomposites is provided.     

Generalized self-consistent estimation of the apparent isotropic elastic moduli and minimum representative volume element size of heterogeneous media

Under investigation is a heterogeneous material consisting of an elastic homogeneous isotropic matrix in which layered elastic isotropic inclusions or pores are embedded. The generalized self-consistent model (GSCM) is extended so as to be capable of estimating the apparent elastic properties of a finite-size specimen smaller than a representative volume element (RVE). The kinematical or static apparent shear modulus is determined as a root of a cubic polynomial equation instead of a quadratic polynomial equation as in the classical GSCM of Christensen and Lo [Christensen, R.M., Lo, K.H., 1979. Solutions for effective shear properties in three phase sphere and cylinder models. J. Mech. Phys. Solids 27, 315–330]. It turns out that the extended GSCM establishes a link between the composite sphere assemblage model (CSAM) of Hashin [Hashin, Z., 1962. The elastic moduli of heterogeneous materials. J. Appl. Mech. 29, 143–150] and the classical GSCM. Demanding that the normalized distance between the kinematical and static apparent moduli of a finite-size specimen be smaller than a certain tolerance, the minimum RVE size is estimated in a closed form.     

Elastic behavior of composites containing multi-layer coated particles with imperfect interface bonding conditions and application to size effects and mismatch in these composites

This paper proposes a procedure to deal with n-layered inclusion based composites with imperfect interfaces (which conditions consist of displacement or stress vector jumps) respecting spherical symmetry. For that purpose, “discontinuity matrices” have been introduced. These matrices have been derived for several classical interface-models and an asymptotic method has been used to determine some of them. A self-consistent condition based on a strain-energy equivalence in the case of inclusion-matrix type composite materials is restated for n-layered inclusions with imperfect interfaces and applied to get estimates of such composites materials. The remarkable feature of the presently self consistent approach is that it does not need any tedious algebra providing the attached interface models respect the spherical symmetry. The present Generalized Self Consistent Model (GSCM) is then used to study size effects and mismatch in composites reinforced by coated inclusions.     

Consistency between independence theorems and generalized self-consistent method

Recently Zheng & Hwang established a series of independence theorems concerning with planar effective elastic properties. It is manifested that the estimation of the effective elastic properties of microcracked solids through the generalized self-consistent method (GSCM) contradicts with these independence theorems. In this paper it is shown that such contradiction is actually caused by the approximate algorithm adopted, while the exact solution of GSCM is consistent with these rigorously established independence theorems. Since only an approximate algorithm in GCSM is available in dealing with problems involving non-circular inclusions or holes, an intrinsic GSCM is proposed, which can be performed based on an approximate algorithm and the corresponding estimations are consistent with the independence theorems.     

Effective mechanical properties of unidirectional composites in the presence of imperfect interface

In this paper, the equivalent inclusion method is implemented to estimate the effective mechanical properties of unidirectional composites in the presence of an imperfect interface. For this purpose, a representative volume element containing three constituents, a matrix, and interface layer, and a fiber component, is considered. A periodic eigenstrain defined in terms of Fourier series is then employed to homogenize non-dilute multi-phase composites. In order to take into account the interphase imperfection effects on mechanical properties of composites, a stiffness parameter in terms of a matrix and interphase elastic modulus is introduced. Consistency conditions are also modified accordingly in such a way that only the part of the fiber lateral stiffness is to be effective in estimating the equivalent composite mechanical properties. Employing the modified consistency equations together with the energy equivalence relation leads to a set of linear equations that are consequently used to estimate the average values of eigenstrain in non-homogeneous phases. It is shown that for composites with both soft and hard reinforcements, largest stiffness parameter that indicates complete fiber–matrix interfacial debonding causes the same equivalent lateral properties.     

Structural interfaces in linear elasticity. Part II: Effective properties and neutrality

The model of structural interfaces developed in Part I of this paper allows us to analytically attack and solve different problems of stress concentration and composites. In particular, (i) new formulae are given for effective properties of composite materials containing dilute suspensions of (randomly oriented) reinforced elliptical voids or inclusions; (ii) a new definition is proposed for inclusion neutrality (to account for the fact that the matrix is always ‘overstressed’, and thus non-neutral in a classical sense, at the contacts with the interfacial structure), which is shown to provide interesting stress optimality conditions. More generally, it is shown that the incorporation of an interfacial structure at the contact between two elastic solids exhibits properties that cannot be obtained using the more conventional approach of the zero-thickness, linear interface. For instance: contrary to the zero-thickness interface, both bulk and shear effective moduli can be optimized for a structural interface; effective properties higher that those possible with a perfect interface can be attained with a structural interface; and neutrality holds with a structural interface for a substantially broader range of parameters than for a zero-thickness interface.     

A simple finite element method for Stokes flows with surface tension using unfitted meshes

This paper presents a simple finite element method for Stokes flows with surface tension. The method uses an unfitted mesh that is independent of the interface. Due to the surface force, the pressure has a jump across the interface. Based on the properties of the level set function that implicitly represents the interface, the jump of the pressure is removed, and a new problem without discontinuities is formulated. Then, classical stable finite element methods are applied to solve the new problem. Some techniques are used to show that the method is equivalent to an easy‐to‐implement method that can be regarded as a traditional method with a modified pressure space. However, the matrix of the resulting linear system of equations is the same as that of the traditional method. Optimal error estimates are derived for the proposed method. Finally, some numerical tests are presented to confirm the theoretical results. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Size-dependent effective thermoelastic properties of nanocomposites with spherically anisotropic phases

Composites made of semi-crystalline polymers and nanoparticles have a spherulitic microstructure which can be reasonably represented by a spherically anisotropic volume element. Due to the high surface-to-volume ratio of a nanoparticle, the particle-matrix interface stress, usually neglected in determining the effective elastic moduli of particle-reinforced composites, may have a non-negligible effect. To account for the latter in estimating the effective thermoelastic properties of a composite consisting of nanoparticles embedded in a semi-crystalline polymeric matrix, this work adopts a coherent interface model for the nanoparticle-matrix interface and proposes an extended version of the classical generalized-self consistent method. In particular, Eshelby's formulae widely used to calculate the elastic energy change of a homogeneous medium due to the introduction of an inhomogeneity are extended to the thermoelastic case. The nanoparticle size effect on the effective thermoelastic moduli of the composite are theoretically shown and numerically illustrated.     

水泥砂浆界面相弹性常数的反演计算

为了计算水泥砂浆界面过渡区的弹性常数,采用广义自洽方法(GSCM),根据水泥砂浆内部的微细观结构,建立了由水泥浆基体、岩石离散夹杂(骨料)、界面过渡区(ITZ)和有效弹性材料组成的四相复合材料模型.推导了界面相的体积模量和剪切模量方程.利用已知水泥砂浆材料的实验数据,计算了界面相的弹性常数.发现界面相剪切模量约为水泥浆基体剪切模量的50%.     

应用边界积分法求圆形夹杂问题的解析解

边界元方法作为一种数值方法, 在各种科学工程问题中得到了广泛的应用.本文参考了边界元法的求解思路, 从Somigliana等式出发, 利用格林函数性质,得到了一种边界积分法, 使之可以用来寻求弹性问题的解析解.此边界积分法也可以从Betti互易定理得到. 应用此新方法, 求解了圆形夹杂问题.首先设定夹杂与基体之间完美连接, 将界面处的位移与应力按照傅里叶级数展开,根据问题的对称性与三角函数的正交性来简化假设, 减少待定系数的个数.其次选择合适的试函数(试函数满足位移单值条件以及无体力的线弹性力学问题的控制方程),应用边界积分法, 求得界面处的位移与应力的值. 然后再求解域内位移与应力.得到了问题的精确解析解, 当夹杂弹性模量为零或趋向于无穷大时,退化为圆孔或刚性夹杂问题的解析解. 求解过程表明,若问题的求解区域包含无穷远处时, 所取的试函数应满足无穷远处的边界条件.若求解区域包含坐标原点, 试函数在原点处位移与应力应是有限的.结果表明了此方法的有效性.      

平面任意形状等剪切模量异质夹杂问题的解析解

本文研究任意形状夹杂域在受到远端均匀荷载和均匀本征应变作用下的弹性场问题,其中基体和夹杂的材料不同但具有相同的剪切模量。利用等效理论将远端均匀荷载引起的扰动转化为等效均匀本征应变的作用,再利用K-M势函数表达扰动场问题的界面连续条件;借助于黎曼映射定理,用洛朗多项式将平面光滑闭合曲线外部区域映射到单位圆外部区域,借助柯西积分公式和Faber多项式求解了等剪切本征应变下夹杂和基体的K-M势函数的显式解析解,其中考虑了夹杂相对于基体的刚体位移。将得到的结果与相关文献的结果进行对比,表明了本论文的方法和结果是有效的和正确的。     

功能梯度界面相对周期分布纤维增强复合材料反平面剪切的影响

基于复变函数理论和边界配点法,探索了功能梯度界面相在周期均匀分布纤维增强复合材料反平面剪切问题中所起的作用.由于纤维在复合材料基体中的周期分布是均匀的,将其简化成含一功能梯度界面相夹杂的方形单胞.采用分层均匀化方法,将功能梯度界面相离散成K层界面层.当K足够大时,每个界面层可视为匀质材料,同时计算得到的复合材料宏观性能...     

Apparent and effective mechanical properties of linear matrix-inclusion random composites: Improved bounds for the effective behavior

This paper is devoted to the derivation of improved bounds for the effective behavior of linear elastic matrix-inclusion composites based on a strategy which is inspired by both the works of Huet, 1990, Danielsson et al., 2007. As shown by the former author, the effective properties of random linear composites can be bounded by ensemble averages of their apparent elastic moduli defined on square (or cubic) volume elements (VEs) and computed with either affine displacement Boundary Conditions (BC) or uniform traction BC. However, in the case of a large contrast of the constituents, the discrepancy between the upper and lower bounds remains significant, even for large values of the VE size. This occurs because the contribution to the total potential (or complementary) energy of the particles (or pores) which intersect the edges of the VE becomes unphysically very large when uniform BC are directly applied to the particles. To avoid such limitations, we considerer non-square (or non-cubic) VEs consisting in simply connex assemblages of cells, each cell being composed of an inclusion surrounded by the matrix, thus forbidding any direct application of BC to the particles. Such VEs are generated by extending the scheme proposed by Danielsson et al. (2007) in the context of periodic random microstructures to fully random microstructures. By applying the classical energy bounding theorems to the non-square VEs, new bounds for the effective behavior are derived. Their application to a two-phase composite composed of an isotropic matrix and aligned identical fibers randomly distributed in the transverse plane leads to sharper bounds which converge quickly with the VE size, even for infinite contrasts.     

Effect of interface stress on the fracture behavior of a nanoscale linear inclusion along the interface of bimaterials

This paper investigates the influence of residual interface tension on the fracture behavior of a nanoscale linear interface inclusion in a bimaterial matrix. Solutions to the inclusion opening displacement and the energy release rate are obtained. The results show that the interface effect on the inclusion deformation and inclusion tip field are prominent at nanoscale. Especially, the residual interface stress has a dramatic influence on the energy release rate. It is also found that the importance of the interface effect depends on the size of the inclusion, the shear modulus ratios of the bimaterial. The inclusion opening displacement and the energy release rate can be reduced considerably by decreasing the inclusion length at nanoscale.     

Influences of imperfect interfaces on effective properties of multiferroic composites with coated inclusion

In order to predict the effective properties of multiferroic composite materials, the effective material constants of multiferroic composites with the coated inclusion and imperfect interface are investigated. Based on the generalized self-consistent theory, the closed-form solutions of the effective material constants are derived. For the composites with piezomagnetic inclusion, piezoelectric coating and polymer matrix, numerical calculations are performed to present the influences of the imperfect interface cooperating with the coating on the effective material constants. From the results, it can be observed that the effective constants can be enhanced by the coating but reduced by the imperfect interface. Moreover, the coating has the shielding effects on the imperfect interface for the composite structures with its higher filling ratio.     

Solutions for effective shear properties in three phase sphere and cylinder models

Solutions are presented for the effective shear modulus of two types of composite material models. The first type is that of a macroscopically isotropic composite medium containing spherical inclusions. The corresponding model employed is that involving three phases: the spherical inclusion, a spherical annulus of matrix material and an outer region of equivalent homogeneous material of unlimited extent. The corresponding two-dimensional, polar model is used to represent a transversely isotropic, fiber reinforced medium. In the latter case only the transverse effective shear modulus is obtained. The relative volumes of the inclusion phase to the matrix annulus phase in the three phase models are taken to be the given volume fractions of the inclusion phases in the composite materials at large. The results are found to differ from those of the well-known Kerner and Hermans formulae for the same models. The latter works are now understood to violate a continuity condition at the matrix to equivalent homogeneous medium interface. The present results are compared extensively with results from other related models. Conditions of linear elasticity are assumed.