Bounds on the effective conductivity of statistically isotropic multicomponent materials and random cell polycrystals

Upper and lower bounds on the effective conductivity of statistically isotropic multicomponent materials in d dimensions (d=2 or 3) are constructed from the minimum energy principles and appropriate trial fields. The trial fields, involving harmonic potentials and free parameters to be optimized, lead to the bounds containing up to three-point correlation information about the microgeometry of a composite. The bounds are applied to give estimates for the symmetric cell materials, which are optimal over some ranges of parameters, and asymmetric multicoated spheres, which yield the exact effective conductivity in certain cases. The results also agree with many known ones. New bounds for random cell polycrystals are obtained and illustrated on a number of polycrystalline aggregates.     

A Note on the Elastic and Geometric Bounds for Composite Laminates

In this paper it is shown that a laminate composed of identical anisotropic layers, like for instance composite plies, cannot reach all the possible elastic states that are allowed by the classical elastic bounds on anisotropic constants. The analysis is carried on and facilitated by the use of particular tensor invariants, the so-called polar parameters.     

Estimation of very narrow bounds to the behavior of nonlinear incompressible elastic composites

Variational bounds for the effective behavior of nonlinear composites are improved by incorporating more-detailed morphological information. Such bounds, which are obtained from the generalized Hashin–Shtrikman variational principles, make use of a reference material with the same microstructure as the nonlinear composite. The geometrical information is contained in the effective properties of the reference material, which are explicitly present in the analytical formulae of the nonlinear bounds. In this paper, the variational approach is combined with estimates for the effective properties of the reference composite via the asymptotic homogenization method (AHM), and applied to a hexagonally periodic fiber-reinforced incompressible nonlinear elastic composite, significantly improving some recent results.     

平面编织复合材料细观力学分析的一个双向直波纹模型

作为对平面编织复合材料弹性质预测的单向直波纹模型的改进，本文提出一个双向的，在经线和纬线方向上均衡的直波纹模型，它更为符合编织复合材料微结构特点。采用这个新模型和经典层板理论，通过对模型上，下表面的两种极限约束条件，予测了平面编织复合材料层板弹性常数的界限。结果表明，这个模型所予测的值更为准确，合理。     

On the stiffness of materials containing a disordered array of microscopic holes or hard inclusions

We study the macroscopic mechanical behavior of materials with microscopic holes or hard inclusions. Specifically, we deal with the effective elastic moduli of composites whose microgeometry consists of either soft or hard isolated inclusions surrounded by an elastic matrix. We approach this problem by taking the stiffness of the inclusion phase to be a complex variable, which we eventually evaluate at the soft or hard limits. Our main result states that there is a certain class of non-physical, negative-definite values of the elastic moduli of the inclusion phase for which the effective tensor does not have infinities or become otherwise singular.We present applications of this result to the estimation of effective moduli and to homogenization theorems. The first application involves using complexanalytic methods to obtain rigorous and accurate bounds on the effective moduli of the high-contrast composites under consideration. We also discuss the variational estimates of Rubenfeld & Keller, which yield a complementary set of bounds on these moduli. The best bounds are given by a combination of the analytical and variational results. As a second application, we show that certain known theorems of homogenization for materials with holes are simple consequences of our main result, and in this connection we establish corresponding new theorems for materials with hard inclusions. While our rederivation of the homogenization theorems for materials with holes can be closely related to other known constructions, it appears that certain elements provided by our main result are essential in the proof of homogenization for the hard-inclusion case.     

Bounds on the elastic and transport properties of two-component composites

Weshow in detail how the McCoy bounds on the effective shear modulus of a statistically isotropic composite, can be simplified and expressed in terms of the volume fraction, f₁, and two geometric parameters. ζ₁ and η₁. We simplify Silnutzer's bounds on the effective elastic moduli of fibre-reinforced composites and find they can be expressed in terms f₁and two geometric parameters, ζ'₁ and η'₁. The parameter ζ'₁ also determines bounds on the transport and optical constants of such composites. Also, the Elsayed-McCoy bounds on the transport properties of fibre-reinforced, symmetric-cell materials are shown to depend on three geometric parameters.     

The elastic moduli estimation of the solid-water mixture

Conceptually, the undrained elastic constants estimated by the poroelasticity theory should be identical to the effective moduli of the two-phase composite of a porous material saturated with pore water. Here we show numerically that the undrained elastic constants determined by an effective moduli estimate are almost identical with those calculated by poroelasticity theory, and if pore shapes are not exactly known and the porosity is around 50%, estimating the elastic constant as the average value of its Voigt and Reuss bounds is reasonably accurate. This is the situation in bone and dentin, the materials that are our primary intended application. This result will hold for situations in which the totally enclosed water phase is constrained to small deformations by virtue of its confinement. Importantly, in this work we assume that water is an isotropic elastic solid with a shear modulus that is 10^?4 times the bulk modulus of the water. Note that it is compressible, but almost incompressible with a Poisson’s ratio of 0.4999.     

Bounds and estimates for elastic constants of random polycrystals of laminates

In order to obtain formulas providing estimates for elastic constants of random polycrystals of laminates, some known rigorous bounds of Peselnick, Meister, and Watt are first simplified. Then, some new self-consistent estimates are formulated based on the resulting analytical structure of these bounds. A numerical study is made, assuming first that the internal structure (i.e., the laminated grain structure) is not known, and then that it is known. The purpose of this aspect of the study is to attempt to quantify the differences in the predictions of properties of the same system being modelled when such internal structure of the composite medium and spatial correlation information is and is not available.     

A micromechanics-based nonlocal constitutive equation incorporating three-point statistics for random linear elastic composite materials

A variational formulation employing the minimum potential and complementary energy principles is used to derive a micromechanics-based nonlocal constitutive equation for random linear elastic composite materials, relating ensemble averages of stress and strain in the most general situation when mean fields vary spatially. All information contained in the energy principles is retained; we employ stress polarization trial fields utilizing one-point statistics so that the resulting nonlocal constitutive equation incorporates up through three-point statistics. The variational structure is developed first for arbitrary heterogeneous linear elastic materials, then for randomly inhomogeneous materials, then for general n-phase composite materials, and finally for two-phase composite materials, in which case explicit variational upper and lower bounds on the nonlocal effective modulus tensor operator are derived. For statistically uniform infinite-body composites, these bounds are determined even more explicitly in Fourier transform space. We evaluate these in detail in an example case: longitudinal shear of an aligned fiber or void composite. We determine the full permissible ranges of the terms involving two- and three-point statistics in these bounds, and thereby exhibit explicit results that encompass arbitrary isotropic in-plane phase distributions; we also develop a nonlocal “Milton parameter”, the variation of whose eigenvalues throughout the interval [0, 1] describes the full permissible range of the three-point term. Example plots of the new bounds show them to provide substantial improvement over the (two-point) Hashin–Shtrikman bounds on the nonlocal operator tensor, for all permissible values of the two- and three-point parameters. We next discuss further applications of the general nonlocal operator bounds: to any three-dimensional scalar transport problem e.g. conductivity, for which explicit results are given encompassing the full permissible ranges of the two- and three-point statistics terms for arbitrary three-dimensional isotropic phase distributions; and to general three-dimensional composites, where explicit results require future research. Finally, we show how the work just summarized, treating elastostatics, can be generalized to elastodynamics, first in general, then explicitly for the longitudinal shear example.     

New exact results for the effective electric, elastic, piezoelectric and other properties of composite ellipsoid assemblages

In this paper we present a unified treatment of composite ellipsoid assemblages in the setting of uncoupled phenomena like conductivity and elasticity and coupled phenomena like thermoelectricity and piezomagnetoelectricity. The building block of this microgeometry is a confocal ellipsoidal particle consisting of a (possibly void) core and a coating. All space is filled up with such units which have different sizes but possess the same aspect ratios. The confocal ellipsoids may have the same orientation in space or may be randomly oriented. The resulting microgeometry simulates two-phase composites in which the reinforcing components are short fibers or elongated particles. Our main interest is in obtaining information of an exact nature on the effective moduli of this microgeometry whose effective tensor symmetry structure depends on the packing mode of the coated ellipsoids. This information will sometimes be complete like the full effective thermoelectric tensor of an assemblage which contains aligned ellipsoids in which the coating is isotropic and the core is arbitrarily anisotropic. In the majority of the cases however the maximum achievable exact information will be only partial and will appear in the form of certain exact relations between the effective moduli of the microgeometry. These exact relations are obtained from exact solutions for the fields in the microstructure for a certain set of loading conditions. In all the considered cases an isotropic coating can be combined with a fully arbitrary core. This covers the most important physical case of anisotropic fibers in an isotropic matrix. Allowing anisotropy in the coating requires the fulfillment of certain constraint conditions between its moduli. Even though in this case the presence of such constraint conditions may render the anisotropic coating material hypothetical, the value of the derived solutions remains since they still provide benchmark comparisons for approximate and numerical treatments. The remarkable feature of the general analysis which covers all treated uncoupled and coupled phenomena is that it is developed solely on the basis of potential solutions of the conduction problem in the same microgeometry.     

Bounds and self-consistent estimates for elastic constants of random polycrystals with hexagonal, trigonal, and tetragonal symmetries

Peselnick, Meister, and Watt have developed rigorous methods for bounding elastic constants of random polycrystals based on the Hashin-Shtrikman variational principles. In particular, a fairly complex set of equations that amounts to an algorithm has been presented previously for finding the bounds on effective elastic moduli for polycrystals having hexagonal, trigonal, and tetragonal symmetries. A more analytical approach developed here, although based on the same ideas, results in a new set of compact formulas for all the cases considered. Once these formulas have been established, it is then straightforward to perform what could be considered an analytic continuation of the formulas (into the region of parameter space between the bounds) that can subsequently be used to provide self-consistent estimates for the elastic constants in all cases. This approach is very similar in spirit but differs in its details from earlier work of Willis, showing how Hashin-Shtrikman bounds and certain classes of self-consistent estimates may be related. These self-consistent estimates always lie within the bounds for physical choices of the crystal elastic constants and for all the choices of crystal symmetry considered. For cubic symmetry, the present method reproduces the self-consistent estimates obtained earlier by various authors, but the formulas for both bounds and estimates are generated in a more symmetric form. Numerical values of the estimates obtained this way are also very comparable to those found by the Gubernatis and Krumhansl coherent potential approximation (or CPA), but do not require computations of scattering coefficients.     

Bounds on the Effective Anisotropic Elastic Constants

Hill [12] showed that it was possible to construct bounds on the effective isotropic elastic coefficients of a material with triclinic or greater symmetry. Hill noted that the triclinic symmetry coefficients appearing in the bounds could be specialized to those of a greater symmetry, yielding the effective isotropic elastic coefficients for a material with any elastic symmetry. It is shown here that it is possible to construct bounds on the effective elastic constants of a material with any anisotropic elastic symmetry in terms of triclinic symmetry elastic coefficients. Similarly, it is then possible to specialize the triclinic symmetry coefficients appearing in the bounds to those of a greater symmetry. Specific bounds are given for the effective elastic coefficients of cubic, hexagonal, tetragonal and trigonal symmetries in terms of the elastic coefficients of triclinic symmetry. These results are obtained by combining the approach of Hill [12] with a representation of the stress-strain relations due, in principle, to Kelvin [25,26] but recast in the structure of contemporary linear algebra. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Homogenization of Polycrystalline¶Aggregates

The effective elastic properties of a polycrystalline material depend on the single crystal elastic constants of the crystallites comprising the polycrystal and on the manner in which the crystallites are arranged. In this paper we apply the techniques of homogenization to put the problem of determining effective elastic constants in a precise mathematical framework that permits us to derive an expression for the effective elasticity tensor. We also study how the homogenized elasticity tensor changes as the probability characterizing the ensemble changes. Under the assumption that the field of orientations of the crystallographic axes of the crystallites is an independent random field, we show that our theory is compatible with the formulation used in texture analysis. In particular, we are able to prove that the physical assumption made by [10] in his study of weakly-textured polycrystals holds true. In addition, we establish some elementary bounds on the material constants that characterize the effective elasticity tensor of weakly-textured orthorhombic aggregates of cubic crystallites. Accepted: (June 15, 1999)     

Bounds on the overall properties of composites with ellipsoidal inclusions

A new model is put forward to bound the effective elastic moduli of composites with ellipsoidal inclusions. In the present paper, transition layer for each ellipsoidal inclusion is introduced to make the trial displacement field for the upper bound and the trial stress field for the lower bound satisfy the continuous interface conditions which are absolutely necessary for the application of variational principles. According to the principles of minimum potential energy and minimum complementary energy, the upper and lower bounds on the effective elastic moduli of composites with ellipsoidal inclusions are rigorously derived. The effects of the distribution and geometric parameters of ellipsoidal inclusions on the bounds of the effective elastic moduli are analyzed in details. The present upper and lower bounds are still finite when the bulk and shear moduli of ellipsoidal inclusions tend to infinity and zero, respectively. It should be mentioned that the present method is simple and needs not calculate the complex integrals of multi-point correlation functions. Meanwhile, the present paper provides an entirely different way to bound the effective elastic moduli of composites with ellipsoidal inclusions, which can be developed to obtain a series of bounds by taking different trial displacement and stress fields.     

The total creep of viscoelastic composites under hydrostatic or antiplane loading

The problem of bounding the total creep (or total stress relaxation) of a composite made of two linear viscoelastic materials and subjected to a constant hydrostatic or antiplane loading is considered. It is done by coupling the immediate and the relaxed responses of the composite, which are pure elastic. The coupled bounds provide the possible range of the total deformation at infinite time as a function of the initial deformation of the composite. For antiplane shear existing bounds for coupled two-dimensional conductivity yield the required coupled bounds, and these are attained by doubly coated cylinder assemblages. The translation method is used to couple the effective bulk moduli of a viscoelastic composite at zero and infinite time. A number of microgeometries are found to attain the bulk modulus bounds. It is shown that the Hashin's composite sphere assemblage does not necessarily correspond to the maximum or minimum overall creep, although it necessarily attains the bounds for effective bulk moduli. For instance, there are cases when the doubly coated sphere microstructure or some special polycrystal arrangements attain the bounds on the total creep.     

A Novel Method for Uncertainty Inverse Problems and Application to Material Characterization of Composites

A novel method is suggested to deal with so-called uncertainty inverse problems (UIPs) which are a class of inverse problems with uncertainty in the system parameters of the forward model. Interval which represents a closed bounded set of real numbers is used to model and characterize the uncertainty in our formulation, and hence only the bounds of the uncertainty of the system parameters are needed. For a specific input vector, the possible values of the outputs form an interval vector because of the uncertainty. An error function is defined using the measured interval vector of the outputs and those computed using a forward model. The UIP is then formulated as an optimization problem which minimizes the error function. To improve the optimization efficiency, an interval forward model is constructed based on the interval analysis method which can calculate very efficiently the bounds of the outputs caused by the uncertainty of the system parameters. The present method is applied to a complex inverse problem, namely material characterization of composite laminates using elastic waves. Uncertainty of load is considered, and the hybrid numerical method (HNM) is used to compute the transient displacement responses. The engineering constants of two kinds of laminates are successfully identified using the simulated measurements of the outputs.     

Spectral decomposition of the compliance fourth-rank tensor for orthotropic materials

Summary The compliance tensor related to orthotropic media is spectrally decomposed and its characteristic values are determined. Further, its idempotent tensors are estimated, giving rise to energy orthogonal states of stress and strain, thus decomposing the elastic potential in discrete elements. It is proven that the essential parameters, required for a complete characterisation of the elastic properties of an orthotropic medium, are the six eigenvalues of the compliance tensor, together with a set of three dimensionless parameters, the eigenangles θ, ϕ and ω. In addition, the intervals of variation of these eigenangles with respect to different values of the elastic constants are presented. Furthermore, bounds on Poisson's ratios are obtained by imposing the thermodynamical constraint on the eigenvalues to be strictly positive, as specified from the positive-definite character of the elastic potential. Finally, the conditions are investigated under which a family of orthotropic media behaves like a transversely isotropic or an isotropic one. Received 5 January 1999; accepted for publication 22 June 1999     

Bounds for effective elastic moduli of inhomogeneous solid bodies

In connection with the extensive use of various kinds of inhomogeneous materials (glass, carbon and boron reinforced plastics, cermets, concrete, reinforced materials, etc.) in technology, there arises a need to calculate the elastic properties of such systems. Here in each case it is necessary to work out specific methods for finding both elastic fields and effective moduli. Since, as a rule, such methods do not take into account the character of distribution of inhomogeneities in space, which is reflected on the form of the central moment functions [1], they can be referred to a single class and, consequently, can be obtained by a common method [2], In the given paper, by means of the method of solution of stochastic problems for microinhomogeneous solid bodies proposed in the work of the author [2], we find elastic fields and effective moduli in an arbitrary approximation. Depending on the choice of parameters, the latter form bounds within which there lie the exact values of the effective moduli. It is shown that the conditions used earlier for finding these parameters [3] are not the best ones. The effective elastic moduli of an inhomogeneous medium are calculated, and bounds, narrower than the bounds formed in [3], are found for them.Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Mekhaniki i Tekhniki, No. 5, pp. 144–150, September–October, 1973.     

纤维排列方式对复合材料总体粘弹性常数的影响

对于金属基或高分子聚合物基复合材料，在特定情况下会表现出明显的粘弹性特性。本文采用Riemann—Liouville形式的分数阶导数模型描述基体的粘性特性，通过渐进均匀化方法给出了预测纤维加强复合材料整体本构关系的解析表达式，给出应用于基体具有Makris粘弹性关系的具体形式。最后，考察了圆截面纤维正方形排列和对角排列时的总体粘弹性弹性常数随纤维比的变化曲线。结果表明，这类复合材料仍具有粘弹性特性，其整体粘弹性本构关系的弹性部分综合了纤维弹性和基体弹性的贡献，粘性部分来自基体粘性的贡献，复合材料具有和基体相同的粘性系数和分数阶。为分析微结构特征对整体特性的贡献，须求解两类局部问题。在相同纤维体积比情况下，正方形排列的总体弹性系数大于正方形对角排列，而粘性常数相反。