Optimal anisotropic three-phase conducting composites: Plane problem

The paper establishes tight lower bound for effective conductivity tensor K₁ of two-dimensional three-phase conducting anisotropic composites and defines optimal microstructures. It is assumed that three materials are mixed with fixed volume fractions and that the conductivity of one of the materials is infinite. The bound expands the Hashin–Shtrikman and translation bounds to multiphase structures, it is derived using a combination of translation method and additional inequalities on the fields in the materials; similar technique was used by Nesi, 1995, Cherkaev, 2009 for isotropic multiphase composites. This paper expands the bounds to the anisotropic composites with effective conductivity tensor K₁. The lower bound of conductivity (G-closure) is a piece-wise analytic function of eigenvalues of K₁, that depends only on conductivities of components and their volume fractions. Also, we find optimal microstructures that realize the bounds, developing the technique suggested earlier by Albin et al., 2007a, Cherkaev, 2009. The optimal microstructures are laminates of some rank for all regions. The found structures match the bounds in all but one region of parameters; we discuss the reason for the gap and numerically estimate it.     

Three-phase plane composites of minimal elastic stress energy: High-porosity structures

The paper establishes exact lower bound on the effective elastic energy of two-dimensional, three-material composite subjected to the homogeneous, anisotropic stress. It is assumed that the materials are mixed with given volume fractions and that one of the phases is degenerated to void, i.e., the effective composite is porous. Explicit formula for the energy bound is obtained using the translation method enhanced with additional inequality expressing certain property of stresses. Sufficient optimality conditions of the energy bound are used to set the requirements which have to be met by the stress fields in each phase of optimal effective material regardless of the complexity of its microstructural geometry. We show that these requirements are fulfilled in a special class of microgeometries, so-called laminates of a rank. Their optimality is elaborated in detail for structures with significant amount of void, also referred to as high-porosity structures. It is shown that geometrical parameters of optimal multi-rank, high-porosity laminates are different in various ranges of volume fractions and anisotropy level of external stress. Non-laminate, three-phase microstructures introduced by other authors and their optimality in high-porosity regions is also discussed by means of the sufficient conditions technique. Conjectures regarding low-porosity regions are presented, but full treatment of this issue is postponed to a separate publication. The corresponding “G-closure problem” of a three-phase isotropic composite is also addressed and exact bounds on effective isotropic properties are explicitly determined in these regions where the stress energy bound is optimal.     

High-rank nonlinear sequentially laminated composites and their possible tendency towards isotropic behavior

This work is concerned with the determination of the effective behavior of sequentially laminated composites with nonlinear behavior of the constituting phases. An exact expression for the effective stress energy potential of two-dimensional and incompressible composites is introduced. This allows to determine the stress energy potential of a rank-N sequentially laminated composite with arbitrary volume fractions and lamination directions of the core laminates in terms of an N-dimensional optimization problem.

Stress energy potentials for sequentially laminated composites with pure power-law behavior of the phases are determined. It is demonstrated that as the rank of the lamination becomes large the behaviors of certain families of sequentially laminated composite tend to be isotropic. Particulate composites with both, stiffer and softer inclusions are considered. The behaviors of these almost isotropic composites are, respectively, softer and stiffer than the corresponding second-order estimates recently introduced by Ponte Castañeda (1996).     

Universal bounds on the electrical and elastic response of two-phase bodies and their application to bounding the volume fraction from boundary measurements

Universal bounds on the electrical and elastic response of two-phase (and multiphase) ellipsoidal or parallelopipedic bodies have been obtained by Nemat-Nasser and Hori. Here we show how their bounds can be improved and extended to bodies of arbitrary shape. Although our analysis is for two-phase bodies with isotropic phases it can easily be extended to multiphase bodies with anisotropic constituents. Our two-phase bounds can be used in an inverse fashion to bound the volume fractions occupied by the phases, and when the volume fraction is asymptotically small reduce to those of Capdeboscq and Vogelius, for electrical conductivity, and Capdeboscq and Kang, for elasticity. Other volume fraction bounds derived here utilize information obtained from thermal, magnetic, dielectric or elastic responses. One bound on the volume fraction can be obtained by simply immersing the body in a water filled cylinder with a piston at one end and measuring the change in water pressure when the piston is displaced by a known small amount. This bound may be particularly effective for estimating the volume of cavities in a body. We also obtain new bounds utilizing just one pair of (voltage, flux) electrical measurements at the boundary of the body.     

Topological design of structures and composite materials with multiobjectives

This paper studies the influence of heat conduction in both structural and material designs in two dimensions. The former attempts to find the optimal structures with the maximum stiffness and minimum resistance to heat dissipation and the latter to tailor composite materials with effective thermal conductivity and bulk modulus attaining their upper limits like Hashin–Shtrikman and Lurie–Cherkaev bounds. In the part of structural topology optimization of this paper solid material and void are considered respectively. While in the part of material design, two-phase ill-ordered base materials (i.e. one has a higher Young’s modulus, but lower thermal conductivity while another has a lower Young’s modulus but higher conductivity) are assumed in order to observe competition in the phase distribution defined by stiffness and conduction. The effective properties are derived from the homogenization method with periodic boundary conditions within a representative element (base cell). All the issues are transformed to the minimization problems subject to volume and symmetry constraints mathematically and solved by the method of moving asymptote (MMA), which is guided by the sensitivities with respect to the design variables. To regularize the problem the SIMP model is explored with the nonlinear diffusion techniques to create edge-preserving and checkerboard-free results. The illustrative examples show how to generate Pareto fronts by means of linear weighting functions, which provide an in-depth understanding how these objectives compete in the topologies.     

Bounds for nonlinear composites via iterated homogenization

Improved estimates of the Hashin–Shtrikman–Willis type are generated for the class of nonlinear composites consisting of two well-ordered, isotropic phases distributed randomly with prescribed two-point correlations, as determined by the H-measure of the microstructure. For this purpose, a novel strategy for generating bounds has been developed utilizing iterated homogenization. The general idea is to make use of bounds that may be available for composite materials in the limit when the concentration of one of the phases (say phase 1) is small. It then follows from the theory of iterated homogenization that it is possible, under certain conditions, to obtain bounds for more general values of the concentration, by gradually adding small amounts of phase 1 in incremental fashion, and sequentially using the available dilute-concentration estimate, up to the final (finite) value of the concentration (of phase 1). Such an approach can also be useful when available bounds are expected to be tighter for certain ranges of the phase volume fractions. This is the case, for example, for the “linear comparison” bounds for porous viscoplastic materials, which are known to be comparatively tighter for large values of the porosity. In this case, the new bounds obtained by the above-mentioned “iterated” procedure can be shown to be much improved relative to the earlier “linear comparison” bounds, especially at low values of the porosity and high triaxialities. Consistent with the way in which they have been derived, the new estimates are, strictly, bounds only for the class of multi-scale, nonlinear composites consisting of two well-ordered, isotropic phases that are distributed with prescribed H-measure at each stage in the incremental process. However, given the facts that the H-measure of the sequential microstructures is conserved (so that the final microstructures can be shown to have the same H-measure), and that H-measures are insensitive to length scales, it is conjectured that the new bounds may hold for more general classes of microstructures with prescribed volume fractions and H-measures (independent of the separation of length scales hypotheses that was made in the derivation of the result using iterated homogenization).     

Quasiconformal mappings as a tool to study certain two-dimensional G-closure problems

A recent theorem due to Astala establishes the best exponent for the area distortion of planar K-quasiconformal mappings. We use a refinement of Astala's theorem due to Eremenko and Hamilton to prove new bounds on the effective conductivity of two-dimensional composites. The bounds are valid for composites made of an arbitrary finite number n of possibly anisotropic phases in prescribed volume fractions. For n= 2 we prove the optimality of the bounds under certain additional assumptions on the G-closure parameters.     

The relaxation of a double-well energy

This paper studies coherent, energy-minimizing mixtures of two linearly elastic phases with identical elastic moduli. We derive a formula for the relaxed or macroscopic energy of the system, by identifying microstructures that minimize the total energy when the volume fractions and the average strain are fixed. If the stress-free strains of the two phases are incompatible then the relaxed energy is nonconvex, with double-well structure. An optimal microstructure always exists within the class of layered mixtures. The optimal microstructure is generally not unique, however; we show how to construct a large family of optimal, sequentially laminated microstructures in many circumstances. Our analysis provides a link between the work of Khachaturyan and Roitburd in the metallurgical literature and that of Ball, James, Pipkin, Lurie, and Cherkaev in the recent mathematical literature. We close by explaining why the corresponding problem for three or more phases is fundamentally more difficult.Supported in part by ARO contract DAAL03-89-K-0039, DARPA contract F49620-87-C-0065, ONR grant N00014-88-K-0279, NSF grant DMS-8701895 and AFOSR grant 90-0090     

Computational studies on high-stiffness,high-damping SiC–InSn particulate reinforced composites

With the objective of achieving composite material systems that feature high stiffness and high mechanical damping, consideration is given here to unit cell analysis of particulate composites with high volume fraction of inclusions. Effective elastic properties of the composite are computed with computational homogenization based on unit cell analysis. The correspondence principle together with the viscoelastic properties of the indium–tin eutectic matrix are then used to compute the effective viscoelastic properties of the composite. Comparison is made with parallel experiments upon composites with an indium–tin eutectic matrix and high volume fractions of silicon-carbide reinforcement. The analytical techniques indicate that combinations of relatively high stiffness and high damping can be achieved in particulate composites with high SiC volume fractions. Based on analysis, the tradeoffs between stiffness and damping characteristics are assessed by changing the volume fraction, size, packing, and gradation of the particulate reinforcement phases. Practical considerations associated with realization of such composites based on the surface energy between the SiC and the InSn are discussed.     

Transversely isotropic sequentially laminated composites in finite elasticity

A general expression for the energy-density function of sequentially laminated composites is derived. For the class of neo-Hookean composites in the limit of small deformations well-known results for linear transversely isotropic composites are recovered. However, it is shown that under large deformations these composites are not isotropic. Transversely isotropic composites are obtained with sequentially-coated composites in which the next rank composite is constructed by lamination of the previous composite with thin layers of the matrix phase. The transverse behavior of this sequentially-coated composite is neo-Hookean with shear modulus in the form of the Hashin-Shtrikman bounds for the corresponding class of linear composites. Comparison of the behaviors of these composites with recent estimates for transversely isotropic composites reveals good agreement up to relatively large deformations and volume fractions of the inclusion phase.     

New variational principles in plasticity and their application to composite materials

I , a variational method for bounding the effective properties of nonlinear composites with isotropic phases, proposed recently by ponte castañeda (J. Mech. Phys. Solids 39, 45, 1991), is given full variational principle status. Two dual versions of the new variational principle are presented and their equivalence to each other, and to the classical variational principles, is demonstrated. The variational principles are used to determine bounds and estimates for the effective energy functions of nonlinear composites with prescribed volume fractions in the context of the deformation theory of plasticity. The classical bounds of Voigt and Reuss for completely anisotropic composites are recovered from the new variational principles and are given alternative, simpler forms. Also, use of a novel identity allows the determination of simpler forms for nonlinear Hashin-Shtrikman bounds, and estimates, for isotropic, particle-reinforced composites, as well as for transversely isotropic, fiber-reinforced composites. Additionally, third-order bounds of the Beran type are determined for the first time for nonlinear composites. The question of the optimality of these bounds is discussed briefly.     

Unified formulae of variational bounds for multiphase anisotropic elastic composites

Using the spherical and deviator decomposition of the polarization and strain tensors, we present a general algorithm for the calculation of variational bounds of dimension d for any type of anisotropic linear elastic composite as a function of the properties of the comparison body. This procedure is applied in order to obtain analytical expressions of bounds for multiphase, linear elastic composites with cubic symmetry where the geometric shapes of the inclusions are arbitrary. For the validation, it can be proved that for the isotropic particular case, the bounds coincide with those recently reported by Gibiansky and Sigmund. On the other hand, based on this general procedure some, classical bounds reported by Hashin for transversely isotropic composites, are reproduced. Numerical calculations and some comparisons with other models and experimental data are shown.     

The effect of brittle interfacial compounds on deformation and fracture of molybdenum-aluminum fiber composites

The effect of brittle intermetallic compounds at the fiber-matrix interface on the deformation characteristics of molybdenum-aluminum fiber composites was investigated. If the filament is ductile and notch-insensitive, then composite strength degradation is relatively minor and composite strength can be predicted by a modified mixture-rule which neglects the strength contribution of the brittle compound. For the case of notch-sensitive filaments, severe filament degradation occurs upon compound formation. The degradation was shown to result from cracks formed during deformation at the roots of compound nodules. The presence of 10 per cent compound by volume results in a 50 per cent decrease in tensile strength, but larger amounts of compound cause little additional strength reduction. At filament volume fractions of 25 and 34 per cent and compound volume fractions less than 10 per cent, composite fracture occurs by the statistical accumulation of fiber necks or fractures depending on the notch sensitivity of the fiber. At high fiber or compound volume fractions, composite failure occurs upon the first or the second filament fracture.     

材料强度对层板抗弹性能和损伤特性的影响

根据纤维增强复合材料宏细观结构特征,基于ABAQUS软件平台,建立了层合板高速冲击损伤三维有限元分析模型。该模型在复合材料层间引入界面单元模拟层间分层,采用三维粘弹性本构,结合Hashin失效准则模拟单层板面内损伤.利用该模型,深入研究了复合材料层板的抗弹性能和损伤特性,数值分析结果与实验结果吻合良好,证明了该方法的合理有效性。通过数值分析,详细探讨了材料强度参数对层板抗弹性能和损伤特性的影响规律,获得了一些有价值的结论。     

On Hashin–Shtrikman-type bounds for nonlinear conductors

For linear composite conductors, it is known that the celebrated Hashin–Shtrikman bounds can be recovered by the translation method. We investigate whether the same conclusion extends to nonlinear composites in two dimensions. To that purpose, we consider two-phase composites with perfectly conducting inclusions. In that case, explicit expressions of the various bounds considered can be obtained. The bounds provided by the translation method are compared with the nonlinear Hashin–Shtrikman-type bounds delivered by the Talbot–Willis (1985) [2] and the Ponte Castañeda (1991) [3] procedures.     

Closed-form solutions to the effective properties of fibrous magnetoelectric composites and their applications

Magnetoelectric coupling is of interest for a variety of applications, but is weak in natural materials. Strain-coupled fibrous composites of piezoelectric and piezomagnetic materials are an attractive way of obtaining enhanced effective magnetoelectricity. This paper studies the effective magnetoelectric behaviors of two-phase multiferroic composites with periodic array of inhomogeneities. For a class of microstructures called periodic E-inclusions, we obtain a rigorous closed-form formula of the effective magnetoelectric coupling coefficient in terms of the shape matrix and volume fraction of the periodic E-inclusion. Based on the closed-form formula, we find the optimal volume fractions of the fiber phase for maximum magnetoelectric coupling and correlate the maximum magnetoelectric coupling with the material properties of the constituent phases. Based on these results, useful design principles are proposed for engineering magnetoelectric composites.     

Analyses of tensile deformation of nanocrystalline α-Fe2O3+fcc-Al composites using molecular dynamics simulations

The tensile deformation of nanocrystalline α-Fe₂O₃+fcc-Al composites at room temperature is analyzed using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The analyses focus on the effects of variations in grain size and phase volume fraction on strength. For comparison purposes, nanostructures of different phase volume fractions at each grain size are given the same grain morphologies and the same grain orientation distribution. Calculations show that the effects of the fraction of grain boundary (GB) atoms and the electrostatic forces between atoms on deformation are strongly correlated with the volume fractions of the Al and Fe₂O₃ phases. In the case of nanocrystalline Al where electrostatic forces are absent, dislocation emission initiates primarily from high-angle GBs. For the composites, dislocations emits from both low-angle and high-angle GBs due to the electrostatic effect of Al-Fe₂O₃ interfaces. The effect of the interfaces is stronger in structures with smaller average grain sizes primarily because of the higher fractions of atoms in interfaces at smaller grain sizes. At all grain sizes, the strength of the composite lies between those of the corresponding nanocrystalline Al and Fe₂O₃ structures. Inverse Hall-Petch (H-P) relations are observed for all structures analyzed due to the fact that GB sliding is the dominant deformation mechanism. The slopes of the inverse H-P relations are strongly influenced by the fraction of GB atoms, atoms associated with defects, and the volume fractions of the Al and Fe₂O₃ phases.     

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.     

An upper bound to the free energy of n-variant polycrystalline shape memory alloys

In the last two decades, the problem of computing the elastic energy of phase transforming materials has been studied by a variety of research groups. Due to the non-quasiconvexity of the underlying multi-well landscape, different relaxation methods have been used in order to estimate the quasiconvex envelope of the energy density, for which no explicit expression is known at present.This paper combines a recently developed lamination bound for monocrystalline shape memory alloys which relies on martensitic twinned microstructures with the work of Smyshlyaev and Willis [1998a. A ‘non-local’ variational approach to the elastic energy minimization of martensitic polycrystals. Proc. R. Soc. London A 454, 1573–1613]. As a result, a lamination upper bound for n-variant polycrystalline martensitic materials is obtained.The lamination bound is then compared with Reuß- and Taylor-type estimates. While, for given volume fractions, good agreement of lamination upper and convexification lower bounds is obtained, a comparison using energy-minimizing volume fractions computed from the various bounds yields larger differences. Finally, we also investigate the influence of the polycrystal's texture. For a strong ellipsoidal texture, we observe even better agreement of upper and lower bounds than for the case of isotropic statistics.     

Improved rigorous bounds on the effective elastic moduli of a composite material

A new method for deriving rigorous bounds on the effective elastic constants of a composite material is presented and used to derive a number of known as well as some new bounds. The new approach is based on a presentation of those constants as a sum of simple poles. The locations and strengths of the poles are treated as variational parameters, while different kinds of available information are translated into constraints on these parameters. Our new results include an extension of the range of validity of the Hashin-Shtrikman bounds to the case of composites made of isotropic materials but with an arbitrary microgeometry. We also use information on the effective elastic constants of one composite in order to obtain improved bounds on the effective elastic constants of another composite with the same or a similar microgeometry.