Elastic interaction of partially debonded circular inclusions. I. Theoretical solution

A complete solution has been obtained of the elasticity problem for a plane containing a finite array of partially debonded circular inclusions, regarded as the open-crack model of fibrous composite with interface damage. A general displacement solution of the single-inclusion problem has been derived by combining the complex potentials technique with the newly derived series expansions. This solution is valid for any non-uniform far load and is finite and exact in the case of polynomial far field. Applying the superposition principle expands this theory to the multiple inclusion problem and provides a simple and rapidly convergent iterative algorithm. The presented numerical data show an accuracy and numerical efficiency of the proposed method and discover the way and extent to which the elastic interaction between the partially debonded inclusions affects the local fields, stress intensity factors and the energy release rate at the interface crack tips.     

Meso cell model of fiber reinforced composite: Interface stress statistics and debonding paths

The primary goal of this work is to develop an efficient analytical tool for the computer simulation of progressive damage in the fiber reinforced composite (FRC) materials and thus to provide the micro mechanics-based theoretical framework for a deeper insight into fatigue phenomena in them. An accurate solution has been obtained for the micro stress field in a meso cell model of fibrous composite. The developed method combines the superposition principle, Kolosov–Muskhelishvili’s technique of complex potentials and Fourier series expansion. By using the properly chosen periodic potentials, the primary boundary-value problem stated on the multiple-connected domain has been reduced to an ordinary, well-posed set of linear algebraic equations. The meso cell can include up to several hundred inclusions which is sufficient to account for the micro structure statistics of composite. The presented numerical examples demonstrate an accuracy and high numerical efficiency of the method which makes it to be a promising tool for studying progressive damage in FRCs. By averaging over a number of random structure realizations, the statistically meaningful results have been obtained for both the local stress and effective elastic moduli of disordered fibrous composite. A special attention has been paid to the interface stress statistics and the fiber debonding paths development, which appear to correlate well with the experimental observations.     

Transverse conductivity and longitudinal shear of elliptic fiber composite with imperfect interface

The paper addresses the problem of calculating the local fields and effective transport properties and longitudinal shear stiffness of elliptic fiber composite with imperfect interface. The Rayleigh type representative unit cell approach has been used. The micro geometry of composite is modeled by a periodic structure with a unit cell containing multiple elliptic inclusions. The developed method combines the superposition principle, the technique of complex potentials and certain new results in the theory of special functions. An appropriate choice of the potentials provides reducing the boundary-value problem to an ordinary, well-posed set of linear algebraic equations. The exact finite form expression of the effective stiffness tensor has been obtained by analytical averaging the local gradient and flux fields. The convergence of solution has been verified and the parametric study of the model has been performed. The obtained accurate, statistically meaningful results illustrate a substantial effect of imperfect interface on the effective behavior of composite.     

Elastic equilibrium of a half plane containing a finite array of elliptic inclusions

An accurate analytical method has been proposed to solve for stress in a half plane containing a finite array of elliptic inclusions, the last being a model of near-surface zone of the fibrous composite part. The method combines the Muskhelishvili’s method of complex potentials with the Fourier integral transform technique. By accurate satisfaction of all the boundary conditions, a primary boundary-value elastostatics problem for a piece-homogeneous domain has been reduced to an ordinary well-posed set of linear algebraic equations. A properly chosen form of potentials provides a remarkably simple form of equations and thus an efficient computational algorithm. The theory developed is rather general and can be applied to solve a variety of elastostatics problems. Up to several hundred interacting inclusions can be considered in this way in practical simulations which makes the model of composite half plane realistic and flexible enough to account for the microstructure statistics. The stress concentration factors and effective thermoelastic properties of random structure composites with dilute concentration of fibers are estimated in the vicinity of a free edge. The numerical examples are given showing accuracy and numerical efficiency of the developed method and disclosing the way and extent to which the nearby free or loaded boundary influences the local and mean stress concentration in the fibrous composite.     

Elastic interaction of partially debonded circular inclusions. II. Application to fibrous composite

A complete analytical solution has been obtained of the elasticity problem for a plane containing periodically distributed, partially debonded circular inclusions, regarded as the representative unit cell model of fibrous composite with interface damage. The displacement solution is written in terms of periodic complex potentials and extends the approach recently developed by Kushch et al. (2010) to the cell type models. By analytical averaging the local strain and stress fields, the exact formulas for the effective transverse elastic moduli have been derived. A series of the test problems have been solved to check an accuracy and numerical efficiency of the method. An effect of interface crack density on the effective elastic moduli of periodic and random structure FRC with interface damage has been evaluated. The developed approach provides a detailed analysis of the progressive debonding phenomenon including the interface cracks cluster formation, overall stiffness reduction and damage-induced anisotropy of the effective elastic moduli of composite.     

Stress concentrations in the particulate composite with transversely isotropic phases

The accurate series solution have been obtained of the elasticity theory problem for a transversely isotropic solid containing a finite or infinite periodic array of anisotropic spherical inclusions. The method of solution has been developed based on the multipole expansion technique. The basic idea of method consists in expansion the displacement vector into a series over the set of vectorial functions satisfying the governing equations of elastic equilibrium. The re-expansion formulae derived for these functions provide exact satisfaction of the interfacial boundary conditions. As a result, the primary spatial boundary-value problem is reduced to an infinite set of linear algebraic equations. The method has been applied systematically to solve for three models of composite, namely a single inclusion, a finite array of inclusions and an infinite periodic array of inclusions, respectively, embedded in a transversely isotropic solid. The numerical results are presented demonstrating that elastic properties mismatch, anisotropy degree, orientation of the anisotropy axes and interactions between the inclusions can produce significant local stress concentration and, thus, affect greatly the overall elastic behavior of composite.     

On multiple circular inclusions in plane magnetoelasticity

A general series solution to the magnetoelastic problem of interacting circular inclusions in plane magnetoelasticity is provided in this paper. By the use of complex variable theory and Laurent series expansion method, the general expression of the magnetic and the magnetoelastic complex potentials for the circular inclusion problem is derived. Expanding the definition of the Airy’s stress function of pure elastic field into the magnetoelastic field and applying the superposition method, the general expression then can be reduced to a set of linear algebraic equations and solved in a series form. An approximate closed form solution for the case of two arbitrarily located inclusions is also provided. For illustrating the effect of the pertinent parameters, the numerical results of the interfacial magnetoelastic stresses are displayed in graphic form.     

Stress concentration and effective stiffness of aligned fiber reinforced composite with anisotropic constituents

The paper addresses the problem of calculation of the local stress field and effective elastic properties of a unidirectional fiber reinforced composite with anisotropic constituents. For this aim, the representative unit cell approach has been utilized. The micro geometry of the composite is modeled by a periodic structure with a unit cell containing multiple circular fibers. The number of fibers is sufficient to account for the micro structure statistics of composite. A new method based on the multipole expansion technique is developed to obtain the exact series solution for the micro stress field. The method combines the principle of superposition, technique of complex potentials and some new results in the theory of special functions. A proper choice of potentials and new results for their series expansions allow one to reduce the boundary-value problem for the multiple-connected domain to an ordinary, well-posed set of linear algebraic equations. This reduction provides high numerical efficiency of the developed method. Exact expressions for the components of the effective stiffness tensor have been obtained by analytical averaging of the strain and stress fields.     

A transversely isotropic composite with a statistical distribution of spheroidal inclusions: a geometrical approach to overall properties

In the literature, the determination of global elastic properties of composites with ellipsoidal inclusions is based on the averaged stress, strain and elastic-energy fields (e.g. Compos. Sci. Technol. 27 (1986) 111). These are related to the local fields of the inclusion, the matrix, and the inclusion-matrix interface. In this study, we propose a method to obtain the global elastic properties of any transversely isotropic composite directly from the elastic properties of the matrix and the inclusions. Thus, it is not necessary to refer to the stress and strain applied globally or generated locally. The inclusions can have any transversely isotropic probability distribution of orientation. The problem is entirely geometrized and is treated in terms of averages of Walpole's (Adv. Appl. Mech. 21 (1981) 169) components of the fourth-order tensors describing the problem. We give a general numerical solution for any transversely isotropic statistical distribution of orientation, and also provide a validation of our method by applying it to some known cases and by retrieving the known exact solutions from the literature.     

In-plane/out-of-plane concentrated forces and moments on composite laminates with elliptical elastic inclusions

The problems of composite laminates containing elliptical elastic inclusions subjected to concentrated forces and moments are considered in this paper. By employing Stroh-like formalism for the coupled stretching–bending analysis, analytical closed form solutions are obtained explicitly. The generality of the solutions provided in this paper can be shown as follows: (1) The laminates include any kinds of laminate lay-ups, symmetric or unsymmetric, which allow the stretching and bending deformations couple each other. (2) The concentrated forces and moments can be applied in in-plane and/or out-of-plane directions, located inside and/or outside the inclusions. (3) The elliptical elastic inclusions can be any kinds of elastic materials including the limiting cases such as holes, rigid inclusions, cracks, line inclusions, etc. Since no such general solution has been found in the literature, the solutions are checked and verified by the special cases that no inclusions are embedded in the laminates, and that the inclusions are replaced by holes. Moreover, with various hardness ratios of inclusion and matrix some numerical examples showing the stress resultants along the interface are presented. Like the Green’s functions for the infinite laminates and those containing holes/cracks, the present solutions associated with the in-plane concentrated forces and out-of-plane concentrated moments have exactly the same mathematical form as those of the corresponding two-dimensional problems, in which the only difference is the contents of the symbols. While for the other loading cases, new types of solutions are obtained explicitly.     

Prediction of the effective elastic properties of spheroplastics by the generalized self-consistent method

The problem of predicting the effective elastic properties of composites with prescribed random location and radius variation in spherical inclusions is solved using the generalized self-consistent method. The problem is reduced to the solution of the averaged boundary-value problem of the theory of elasticity for a single inclusion with an inhomogeneous transition layer in a medium with desired effective elastic properties. A numerical analysis of the effective properties of a composite with rigid spherical inclusions and a composite with spherical pores is carried out. The results are compared with the known solution for the periodic structure and with the solutions obtained by the standard self-consistent methods. Perm’ State Technical University, Perm’ 614600. Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika i Tekhnicheskaya Fizika, Vol. 40, No. 3, pp. 186–190, May–June, 1999.     

Analysis of the stress-strain state of an anisotropic plate with an elliptic hole and thin elastic inclusions

We solve the problem of determining the stress-strain state of an anisotropic plate with an elliptic hole and a system of thin rectilinear elastic inclusions. We assume that there is a perfect mechanical contact between the inclusions and the plate. We deal with a more precise junction model with the flexural rigidity of inclusions taken into account. (The tangential and normal stresses, as well as the derivatives of the displacements, experience a jump across the line of contact.) The solution of the problem is constructed in the form of complex potentials automatically satisfying the boundary conditions on the contour of the elliptic hole and at infinity. The problem is reduced to a system of singular integral equations, which is solved numerically. We study the influence of the rigidity and geometry parameters of the elastic inclusions on the stress distribution and value on the contour of the hole in the plate. We also compare the numerical results obtained here with the known data.     

PLANE ELASTIC PROBLEM ON RIGID LINES ALONG CIRCULAR INCLUSION

The plane elastic problem of circular-arc rigid line inclusions is considered. The model is subjected to remote general loads and concentrated force which is applied at an arbitrary point inside either the matrix or the circular inclusion. Based on complex variable method, the general solutions of the problem were derived. The closed form expressions of the sectionally holomorphic complex potentials and the stress fields were derived for the case of the interface with a single rigid line. The exact expressions of the singular stress fields at the rigid line tips were calculated which show that they possess a pronounced oscillatory character similar to that for the corresponding crack problem under plane loads. The influence of the rigid line geometry, loading conditions and material mismatch on the stress singularity coefficients is evaluated and discussed for the case of remote uniform load.     

Effective elastic moduli of triply periodic particulate matrix composites with imperfect unit cells

In many problems the material may possess a periodic microstructure formed by the spatial repetition of small microstructures, or unit cells. Such a perfectly regular distribution, of course, does not exist in actual cases, although the periodic modeling can be quite useful, since it provides rigorous estimations with a priori prescribed accuracy for various material properties. Triply periodic particulate matrix composites with imperfect unit cells are analyzed in this paper. The multiparticle effective field method (MEFM) is used for the analysis of the perfect and imperfect periodic structure composites. The MEFM is originally based on the homogeneity hypothesis (H1) (see for details [Buryachenko, V.A., 2001. Multiparticle effective field and related methods in micromechanics of composite materials. Appl. Mech. Rev. 54, 1–47]) of effective field acting on the inclusions. In this way the pair interaction of different inclusions is taken directly into account by the use of analytical approximate solution. For perfect periodic structures the hypothesis (H1) is enough for estimation of effective properties. Imperfection of packing necessitates exploring some additional assumption called a closing hypothesis. The next imperfections are analyzed. (A) The probability of location of an inclusion in the center of a unit cell below one (missing inclusion). (B) Some hard inclusions are randomly replaced by the porous (modeling the complete debonding) with some probability. At first, one obtains general explicit integral representations of the effective elastic moduli and strain concentrator factors depending on three numerical solutions: for the perfect periodic structure, for the infinite periodic structure with one imperfection, and for the infinite periodic structure with two arbitrary located imperfections. The method proposed is general; it is not limited by concrete numerical scheme. No restrictions were assumed on both the concrete microstructure and inhomogeneity of stress fields in the inclusions. The inclusions of one kind are assumed to be aligned. The problem (A) is solved at the level of numerical results obtained in the framework of the hypothesis (H1). For the problem (B) the numerical results are obtained if the elastic inclusions (for example hard inclusions) are randomly replaced by another inclusion (for example by the voids modeling the complete debonding). The mentioned problems are solved by three methods. The first one is a Monte Carlo simulation exploring an analytical approximate solution for the binary interacting inclusions obtained in the framework of the hypothesis (H1). The second one is a generalization of the version of the MEFM proposed for the analysis of the perfect periodic particulate composites and based on the choice of a comparison medium coinciding with the matrix. The third method uses a decomposition of the desired solution on the solution for the perfect periodic structure and on the perturbation produced by the imperfections in the perfect periodic structure. All three methods lead to close results in the considered examples; however, the CPU times expended for the solution estimation by Monte Carlo simulation differ by a factor of 1000.     

BEM for simulation of a 2D elastic body with randomly distributed circular inclusions

Based on our 2D BEM software THBEM2 which can be applied to the simulation of an elastic body with randomly distributed identical circular holes, a scheme of BEM for the simulation of elastic bodies with randomly distributed circular inclusions is proposed. The numerical examples given show that the boundary element method is more accurate and more effective than the finite element method for such a problem. The scheme presented can also be successfully used to estimate the effective elastic properties of composite materials. Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 19772025).     

On collinear microcrack–inclusion arrays interaction and related problems

Investigated is a crack problem for an array of collinear microcracks in composite matrix. Inclusions are situated in between the neighbouring microcracks tips and exhibit different elastic properties than matrix. The problem is solved using the technique of distributed dislocations. A developed approximate fundamental solution for a single dislocation lying in a general point between inclusions is employed in the distribution of continuously distributed dislocation to cracks modelling. Stress intensity factor is calculated for various cracks/inclusions geometries and elastic moduli mismatches. Stability and/or instability of the straight microcrack paths is investigated for slowly growing microcracks with inclusions located in between the neighbouring microcracks tips. Applications to periodic microcrack tunnelling and microcracks weakening ahead of the main crack are discussed.     

Problem of interaction of thin rigid needle-shaped inclusions located between different elastic materials

We study a piecewise-homogeneous elastic plane composed of two half-planes with different elastic parameters and two thin rigid needle-shaped inclusions located between them. One inclusion is rigidly connected with the environment, and the other inclusion is not, while contacting with it like a smooth rigid punch. We consider the plane deformed state generated by stresses given at infinity. The problem is reduced to a combination of a matrix Riemann boundary-value problem from the theory of analytic functions and a matrix Hilbert problem, which can be solved in terms of integrals through the reduction to two separate scalar Riemann boundary-value problems on a twosheeted Riemann surface.We explicitly obtain the complex potentials of the composite elastic plane, the stress intensity factors near the tips of the inclusion, and the rotation angles of the inclusions. We also present numerical examples illustrating how the stresses near the inclusions depend on the elastic and geometric parameters of the problem.     

Asymptotic solutions by the successive disordering method

We develop the periodic componentmethod [1] and represent the solution of a stochastic boundary value elasticity problem for a random quasiperiodic structure with a given disordering degree of inclusions in the matrix via the deviations from the corresponding solution for a random structure with a smaller disordering degree. An example in which the tensor of elastic properties of a composite is calculated is used to illustrate the asymptotic and differential approaches of the successive disordering method. The asymptotic approach permits representing the quasiperiodic structure with a given chaos coefficient and the desired tensor of effective elastic properties as a result of small successive disordering of an originally ideally periodic structure of a composite with known tensor of elastic properties. In the differential approach, a differential equation is obtained for the tensor of effective elastic properties as a function of the chaos coefficient. Its solution coincides with the solution provided by the asymptotic approach. The solution is generalized to the case of piezoactive composites, and a numerical analysis of the effective properties is performed for a PVF (polyvinylidene fluoride) piezoelectric with various quasiperiodic structures on the basis of the cubic structure with spherical inclusions of a high-module elastic material.     

A Unified Two-Phase Potential Method for Elastic Bi-material: Planar Interfaces

This paper gives a unified approach to analyze two-dimensional elastic deformations of a composite body consisting of two dissimilar anisotropic or isotropic materials perfectly bonded along a planar interface. The Eshelby et al. formalism of anisotropic elasticity is linked with that of Kolosov-Muskhelishvili for isotropic elasticity by means of two complex matrix functions describing completely the arising elastic fields. These functions, whose elements are holomorphic functions, are defined as the two-phase potentials of the bimaterial. The present work is concerned with bi-materials whose constituent materials occupy the whole space and are connected by a planar interface. The elastic fields arising in such a bimaterial are given by universal relationships in terms of the two-phase potentials. Then, the general results obtained are implemented to study two interesting bimaterial problems: the problem of a uniformly stressed bimaterial with a perfect interfacial bonding, and the interface crack problem of a bimaterial with a general loading. For both problems, all combinations of the elastic properties of the constituent materials are considered. For the first problem, the constraints, which must be imposed between the components of the applied uniform stress fields, are established, so that they are admissible as elastic fields of the bimaterial. For the interface crack problem, the solution is obtained for a general loading applied in the body. Detailed results are given for the case of a remote uniform stress field applied to the bimaterial constituents.     

Penny-shaped crack in a fiber-reinforced matrix

Using the slender inclusion model developed earlier the elastostatic interaction problem between a penny-shaped crack and elastic fibers in an elastic matrix is formulated. For a single set and for multiple sets of fibers oriented perpendicularly to the plane of the crack and distributed symmetrically on concentric circles the problem is reduced to a system of singular integral equations. Techniques for the regularization and for the numerical solution of the system are outlined. For various fiber geometries numerical examples are given and distribution of the stress intensity factor along the crack border is obtained. Sample results showing the distribution of the fiber stress and a measure of the fiber-matrix interface shear are also included.