Effective elastic moduli of an inhomogeneous medium with cracks

In the present paper, the effective elastic moduli of an inhomogeneous medium with cracks are derived and obtained by taking into account its microstructural properties which involve the shape, size and distribution of cracks and the interaction between cracks. Numerical results for the periodic microstructure of different dimensions are presented. From the results obtained, it can be found that the distribution of cracks has a significant effect on the effective elastic moduli of the material. The project supported by the National Education Committee for Doctor     

Effective elastic moduli of two dimensional solids with distributed cohesive microcracks

Effective elastic properties of a defected solid with distributed cohesive micro-cracks are estimated based on homogenization of the Dugdale–Bilby–Cottrell–Swinden (Dugdale–BCS) type micro-cracks in a two dimensional elastic representative volume element (RVE).Since the cohesive micro-crack model mimics various realistic bond forces at micro-scale, a statistical average of cohesive defects can effectively represent the overall properties of the material due to bond breaking or crack surface separation in small scale. The newly proposed model is distinctive in the fact that the resulting effective moduli are found to be pressure sensitive.     

Prediction of the overall moduli of a cylindrical short-fiber reinforced composite

With respect to obtaining the effective elastic moduli of the composite, the present theory differs from both Eshelby's equivalent inclusion method and Hill's self-consistent one, both of which only consider the mechanical properties of the matrix and inclusions (fibers). In fact, the inclusion-inclusion interaction is more pronounced when the volume fraction of inclusions of the composite increases. Hence, in this paper the effective elastic moduli of the composite are derived by taking into account the shapes, sizes and distribution of inclusions, and the interactions between inclusions. In addition, it is more convincing to assume short-fibers as cylindrical inclusions as in the present paper than as ellipsoidal ones as in others^[7,8]. Finally, numerical results are given.     

Effective elastic moduli of periodic granular composite with transversely isotropic phases

We find a rigorous solution describing the macroscopically uniform stress state of a periodic granular composite with transversely isotropic phases. The structure of the composite is modeled by a cube containing a finite number of arbitrarily arranged and oriented, transversely isotropic spherical inclusions. This provides the model with a flexible means of describing the microstructure. Applying periodic vector solutions and local expansion formulas reduces the initial boundary-value problem to a system of linear algebraic equations. By averaging the solution over the unit cell, we derived exact finite expressions for the components of the effective stiffness tensor. The numerical data presented help to evaluate the efficiency of the method and the limits of applicability of available approximate theories.Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika, Vol. 40, No. 9, pp. 123–130, September 2004.     

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.     

广义自洽Mori-Tanaka模型及涂层夹杂体复合材料的有效模量

经典广义自洽模型的最大不足是需要确定相材料的位移及应变场,这一过程十分繁杂,而且最后得到的有效剪切模量无法显式表达,难以应用.该文摈弃这一经典做法,而从广义自洽模型的应变等价条件出发,在夹杂应变均匀的近似假定下,将Hill界面条件应用于整个二相体内,从而得到一种可以预报涂层夹杂体复合材料有效模量的广义自洽Mori-Tanaka模型.与已有的实验及理论结果的比较表明,该模型准确可靠,而且有效体积和剪切模量均能显式表达.同时证实,以上的Hill界面条件应用于二相体内相当于Mori-Tanaka平均场近似.     

The boundaries of the effective elastic moduli for inhomogeneous solids

The calculation of the effective elastic moduli of inhomogeneous solids, which connect the stresses and strains averaged for the material, is accompanied by certain mathematical difficulties owing to correlation relationships of arbitrary orders. Neglect of correlation relationships leads to average elastic moduli, where averaging according to Voigt and Reuss establishes boundaries containing the effective elastic moduli [1]. Approximate values of the latter can be found by taking into account the correlation relationships of the second order in both calculation schemes [2, 3]. Another method of evaluating the true moduli consists of narrowing the boundaries of Voigt and Reuss on the basis of model representations [4-6]. The approximate effective elastic moduli for a series of polycrystals with various common-angle values are presented in [7]. An analysis of the effect of the correlation relationships between the grains of a mechanical mixture of isotropic components on the effective elastic moduli is carried out in [8], although in all the papers just mentioned the use of correlative corrections to narrow the range of elastic moduli is not investigated. Below it is shown that the calculation of the correlation corrections in the second approximation allows the range for the effective moduli to be narrowed.     

快速多极虚边界元法对含圆孔薄板有效弹性模量的模拟分析

针对虚边界元法,引入快速多极展开和广义极小残值法(GMRES)的思想,以形成快速多极虚边界元法的求解思想,并将此方法用于含圆孔薄板有效弹性模量的模拟分析.由于本文方法采用了"源点"多极展开和"场点"局部展开的组合处理方案,从而使得原问题方程组求解的计算耗时量和储存量降至与所求问题的计算自由度数成线性比例.本文工作的研究目的在于:提高虚边界元法在普通台式机上的运算能力和拓宽虚边界元法对大规模复杂问题的求解(或数值模拟).文中给出了均布圆孔的正方形薄板和之字形分布圆孔薄板二个算例,以验证该方法的可行性,计算精度和计算效率.     

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     

The effective properties of piezocomposites, part II: The effective electroelastic moduli

Since piezoelectric ceramic/polymer composites have been widely used as smart materials and smart structures, it is more and more important to obtain the closed-from solutions of the effective properties of piezocomposites with piezoelectric ellipsoidal inclusions. Based on the closed-from solutions of the electroelastic Eshelby's tensors obtained in the part I of this paper and the generalized Budiansky's energy-equivalence framework, the closed-form general relations of effective electroelastic moduli of the piezocomposites with piezoelectric ellipsoidal inclusions are given. The relations can be applicable for several micromechanics models, such as the dilute solution and the Mori-Tanaka's method. The difference among the various models is shown to be the way in which the average strain and the average electric field of the inclusion phase are evaluated. Comparison between predicted and experimental results shows that the theoretical values in this paper agree quite well with the experimental results. These expression can be readily utilized in analysis and design of piezocomposites. The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China     

Mesoscopic natural element analysis of elastic moduli, yield stress and fracture of solids containing a number of voids

A two-dimensional mesoscale simulation method based on the natural element method, which is a kind of meshless method, is developed and applied to the analysis of overall elastic moduli, macro yield stress and void-linking fracture. The calculated results are compared with the theoretical solutions for overall elastic moduli, the experimental macro yield stress for aluminum and brass as well as the improved Gurson’s yield function, and the experimental void linking fracture to show the validity of the proposed method.     

Effective elastic moduli of composites reinforced by particle or fiber with an inhomogeneous interphase

The solution of the strain energy change of an infinite matrix due to the presence of one spherical particle or cylindrical fiber surrounded by an inhomogeneous interphase is the basis of solving effective elastic moduli of corresponding composites based on various micromechanics models. In order to find out the strain energy change, the composite sphere or cylinder, i.e., the spherical particle or cylindrical fiber together with its interphase, is replaced by an effective homogeneous particle or fiber. Independent governing differential equations for each modulus of the effective particle or fiber are derived by extending the replacement method [J. Mech. Phys. Solids 12 (1964) 199]. As far as the strain energy changes of the infinite matrix subjected to various far-field stress systems are concerned, the present model is simple. Meanwhile, FEM analysis is carried out for a verification, which shows that the model can lead to rather accurate results for most practical interphases. Besides, to check the validity of the model further when the interactions among composite cylinders exist, the two problems of an infinite matrix containing two composite cylinders and the effective moduli of composites with the equilateral triangular distribution of composite cylinders are analyzed using FEM. The FEM results show that the model is still rather accurate, especially for the case of interphase properties varying between those of fiber and matrix. Therefore, composite spheres or cylinders are assumed as the effective homogeneous particles or fibers and simple expressions of the effective moduli of composites containing the composite spheres or cylinders are obtained. Furthermore, the present model is compared with some existing models that are based on very complicated derivations.     

Size-dependent effective elastic moduli of particulate composites with interfacial displacement and traction discontinuities

This work aims at estimating the size-dependent effective elastic moduli of particulate composites in which both the interfacial displacement and traction discontinuities occur. To this end, the interfacial discontinuity relations derived from the replacement of a thin uniform interphase layer between two dissimilar materials by an imperfect interface are reformulated so as to considerably simplify the characteristic expressions of a general elastic imperfect model which is adopted in the present work and include the widely used Gurtin–Murdoch and spring-layer interface models as particular cases. The elastic fields in an infinite body made of a matrix containing an imperfectly bonded spherical particle and subjected to arbitrary remote uniform strain boundary conditions are then provided in an exact, coordinate-free and compact way. With the aid of these results, the elastic properties of a perfectly bonded spherical particle energetically equivalent to an imperfectly bonded one in an infinite matrix are determined. The estimates for the effective bulk and shear moduli of isotropic particulate composites are finally obtained by using the generalized self-consistent scheme and discussed through numerical examples.     

Differential nonhomogeneous models for elastic randomly cracked solids

A differential scheme is developed to approximate the elastic behaviour of randomly cracked solids, accounting for possible locally nonhomogeneous distribution of the cracks. Certain inclusion or matrix spaces within the solids are modelled as forbidden regions for the cracks. At small to intermediate values of the crack density and proportion of forbidden regions, the effective elastic moduli of the models do not differ much from each other, but the differences become profound at higher values of those parameters: the effective moduli can be very small and large (toward those of the uncracked solids) depending upon the particular nonhomogeneous arrangements of the cracks.     

Prediction of the effective elastic moduli of materials with irregularly-shaped pores based on the pore projected areas

Statistical modeling is used to correlate geometric parameters of pores with their contributions to the overall Young’s moduli of linearly elastic solids. The statistical model is based on individual pore contribution parameters evaluated by finite element simulations for a small pore subset selected using the design of experiments approach, so there is no need to solve the elasticity problem for all pores in the material. A polynomial relating pore geometric parameters to the contribution parameters is then fitted to the results of the simulations. We found a good correlation between normalized projected areas of the pores on three coordinate planes and their contributions to the corresponding effective Young’s moduli. The model is applied and validated for two large sets of pore geometries obtained by X-ray microcomputed tomography of a carbon/carbon and a 3D woven carbon/epoxy composite specimens.     

The effect of a variation in the elastic moduli on Saint-Venant's principle for a half-cylinder

A semi-infinite prismatic cylinder composed of a linear anisotropic classical elastic material is in equilibrium under zero body force and either zero displacement or zero traction on the lateral boundary. The elastic moduli become perturbed. Under suitable conditions on the base load decay estimates are derived for the difference between corresponding quantities in the unperturbed and perturbed bodies. The amplitude in each estimate involves a multiplicative factor that tends to zero as the perturbation tends to zero. The analysis, based upon a first-order differential inequality, introduces apparently new modifications of Korn's inequalities of the first and second kind.     

Micromechanical study of elastic moduli of three-dimensional granular assemblies

In micromechanics of granular materials, relationships are investigated between micro-scale characteristics of particles and contacts and macro-scale continuum characteristics. For three-dimensional isotropic assemblies the macro-scale elastic characteristics are described by the bulk and the shear modulus, which depend on the micro-scale characteristics of the coordination number (i.e. the average number of contacts per particle) and the interparticle contact stiffnesses in directions normal and tangential to the contact.     

Buckling of embedded microtubules in elastic medium

Motivated by the application of Winkler-like models for the buckling analysis of embedded carbon nanotubes, an orthotropic Winkler-like model is developed to study the buckling behavior of embedded cytoskeletal microtubules within the cytoplasm. Experimental observations of the buckling of embedded cytoskeletal microtubules reveal that embedded microtubules bear a large compressive force as compared with free microtubules. The present theoretical model predicts that embedded microtubules in an elastic medium bear large compressive forces than free microtubules. The estimated critical pressure is in good agreement with the experimental values of the pressure-induced buckling of microtubules. Moreover, due to the mechanical coupling of microtubules with the surrounding elastic medium, the critical buckling force is increased considerably, which well explains the theory that the mechanical coupling of microtubules with an elastic medium increases compressive forces that microtubules can sustain. The model presented in the paper is a good approximation for the buckling analysis of embedded microtubules.     

Estimate of effective elastic moduli with microcrack interaction effects

A method is developed for estimating the effects of microdefect interaction on the effective elastic properties of heterogeneous solids. An effective medium is defined to calculate the global effective elastic moduli of brittle materials weakened by distributed microcracks. Each microcrack is assumed to be embedded in an effective medium, the compliance of which is obtained from the dilute concentration method without accounting for interaction. The present scheme requires no iteration; it can account for microcrack interaction with sufficient accuracy. Analytical solutions are given for several two- and three-dimension problems with and without anisotropy.     

含有随机夹杂非均匀体的有效弹性模量

在对含有随机夹杂的非均匀体求有效弹性模量时,一般多根据Eshelby的等效夹杂法,但由于该方法没有充分考虑非均匀体内部的微结构,所以其理论具有一定的局限性。本文认为Kunin的微结构理论与Eshelby的等效夹杂法相比更具一般性,因而本文采用了文[9]中一些合理的思想,摒弃了其中不合理的假设,并且建立了一种新的理论模型.最后,本文针对球夹杂的情况给出了非均匀体有效弹性模量依赖于夹杂体积份数的关系,并将该结果与文[10]中的结果进行了比较.