Bounds and perturbation series for incompressible elastic composites with transverse isotropic symmetry

The effective elastic behavior of a transversely isotropic composite made from two incompressible elastic materials is examined. The set of all effective elasticity tensors for transversely isotropic finite rank laminar microstructures is described. The extremal property of this class of microstructures is used to derive a new more precise characterization of the set of effective shear moduli.The perturbation series for the effective elasticity tensor is considered. An explicit formula for the second order perturbation tensor is derived. We describe precisely the set of tensors that correspond to all second order perturbations consistent with transverse isotropy. We apply analytic methods [cf. 27] to show that all second order perturbation tensors are realized by finite rank laminar microstructures.Supported by NSF through Grant DMS-3907658.     

Micromechanics predictions of the effective moduli of magnetoelectroelastic composite materials

In this paper, the self-consistent, generalized Mori–Tanaka and dilute micromechanics theories are extended to study the coupled magnetoelectroelastic composite materials. The heterogeneous inclusion problem of magnetoelectroelastic behavior is formulated in terms of five interaction tensors related to the Green's functions for an infinite three-dimensional transversely isotropic magnetoelectroelastic solid. These tensors are then used to predict the effective moduli of the magnetoelectroelastic solid based on the self-consistent, Mori–Tanaka and the dilute approaches. Numerical results are obtained for various types of inclusions. These results are employed to study the effects of the inclusion properties, such as moduli, volume fractions, shapes, etc., on the effective moduli of magnetoelectroelastic composites, in particular, the related magnetic properties. The results obtained using the self-consistent model, the generalized Mori–Tanaka's model and the dilute approach are compared with the existing experimental and theoretical results.     

Effective elastic shear stiffness of a periodic fibrous composite with non-uniform imperfect contact between the matrix and the fibers

In this contribution, effective elastic moduli are obtained by means of the asymptotic homogenization method, for oblique two-phase fibrous periodic composites with non-uniform imperfect contact conditions at the interface. This work is an extension of previous reported results, where only the perfect contact for elastic or piezoelectric composites under imperfect spring model was considered. The constituents of the composites exhibit transversely isotropic properties. A doubly periodic parallelogram array of cylindrical inclusions under longitudinal shear is considered. The behavior of the shear elastic coefficient for different geometry arrays related to the angle of the cell is studied. As validation of the present method, some numerical examples and comparisons with theoretical results verified that the present model is efficient for the analysis of composites with presence of imperfect interface and parallelogram cell. The effect of the non uniform imperfection on the shear effective property is observed. The present method can provide benchmark results for other numerical and approximate methods.     

PREDICTION OF THE VISCOELASTIC PROPERTIES OF THE EQUIVALENT PARTICLE FOR THE INTERCALATED MULTI-LAYER STACK OF NANOPLASTICS

The aim of this paper is to apply the asymptotic homogenization method to deter- mining analytically and numerically the transversely isotropic viscoelastic relaxation moduli of the equivalent particle for the intercalated multi-layer stack of intercalated type nanoplastics.A two-phase multilayered material containing n layers is considered.The matrix is assumed to be an isotropic viscoelastic standard linear body and the reinforcement is assumed to be an isotropic elastic body.Final explicit analytical formulae for the effective elastic moduli of the multilay- ered material are derived first;and then the correspondence principle is employed to obtain the homogenized relaxation moduli of the equivalent intercalated particle.A numerical example is given.Final explicit analytical formulae in the time domain derived here make it convenient to estimate the influence of all the particle parameters of micro-structural details on the effective properties of the equivalent intercalated particle.The results of this paper can also be applied to multi-layer composites.     

Rigorous bounds on the effective moduli of composites and inhomogeneous bodies with negative-stiffness phases

We review the theoretical bounds on the effective properties of linear elastic inhomogeneous solids (including composite materials) in the presence of constituents having non-positive-definite elastic moduli (so-called negative-stiffness phases). Using arguments of Hill and Koiter, we show that for statically stable bodies the classical displacement-based variational principles for Dirichlet and Neumann boundary problems hold but that the dual variational principle for traction boundary problems does not apply. We illustrate our findings by the example of a coated spherical inclusion whose stability conditions are obtained from the variational principles. We further show that the classical Voigt upper bound on the linear elastic moduli in multi-phase inhomogeneous bodies and composites applies and that it imposes a stability condition: overall stability requires that the effective moduli do not surpass the Voigt upper bound. This particularly implies that, while the geometric constraints among constituents in a composite can stabilize negative-stiffness phases, the stabilization is insufficient to allow for extreme overall static elastic moduli (exceeding those of the constituents). Stronger bounds on the effective elastic moduli of isotropic composites can be obtained from the Hashin–Shtrikman variational inequalities, which are also shown to hold in the presence of negative stiffness.     

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.     

Nematic polymer mechanics: flow-induced anisotropy

In this paper, we model and compute flow-induced mechanical properties of nematic polymer nano-composites, consisting of transversely isotropic rigid spheroids in an isotropic matrix. Our goal is to fill a gap in the theoretical literature between random and perfectly aligned spheroidal composites (Odegard et al. in Compos. Sci. Technol. 63, 1671–1687, 2003; Gusev et al. in Adv. Eng. Mater. 4(12), 927–931 2002; Torquato in Random heterogeneous materials. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, 2002; Milton in The Theory of Composites. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2002) by modeling the influence of nano-particle volume fraction, flow type and flow rate on nano-composite elasticity tensors. As these influences vary, we predict the degree of elastic anisotropy, determining the number of independent moduli, and compute their values relative to the nano-particle and matrix moduli. We restrict here to monodomains, addressing features associated with orientational configurations of the rod or platelet ensemble. The key modeling advance is the transfer of symmetries (Forest et al. in Phys. Fluids 12(3), 490–498, 2000) and numerical databases (Forest et al. in Rheol. Acta 43(1), 17–37, 2004a, Rheol. Acta 44(1), 80–93, 2004b) for the orientational probability distribution function of the nematic polymer ensemble into the classical Mori–Tanaka effective elasticity tensor formalism. Isotropic, transversely isotropic, orthotropic, monoclinic, and maximally anisotropic elasticity tensors are realized as volume fraction, imposed flow type and flow strength are varied, with 2, 5, 9, 13 or 21 independent moduli for the various symmetries.     

Mechanics of low density materials

Mechanics analyses are used to derive the effective elastic moduli for low density materials. Both open cell and closed cell geometric models are employed in the case of isotropic media. The five independent effective moduli are derived for a low density transversely isotropic medium. Compressive strength, as defined by elastic stability, is also derived for open cell and closed cell isotropic materials. The theoretical results are compared with some experimental results, and also are assessed with respect to previous work.     

Electromechanical response of (3–0, 3–1) particulate,fibrous, and porous piezoelectric composites with anisotropic constituents: A model based on the homogenization method

An analytical framework based on the homogenization method has been developed to predict the effective electromechanical properties of periodic, particulate and porous, piezoelectric composites with anisotropic constituents. Expressions are provided for the effective moduli tensors of n-phase composites based on the respective strain and electric field concentration tensors. By taking into account the shape and distribution of the inclusion and by invoking a simple numerical procedure, solutions for the electromechanical properties of a general anisotropic inclusion in an anisotropic matrix are obtained. While analytical forms are provided for predicting the electroelastic moduli of composites with spherical and cylindrical inclusions, numerical evaluation of integrals over the composite microstructure is required in order to obtain the corresponding expressions for a general ellipsoidal particle in a piezoelectric matrix. The electroelastic moduli of piezoelectric composites predicted by the analytical model developed in the present study demonstrate excellent agreement with results obtained from three-dimensional finite-element models for several piezoelectric systems that exhibit varying degrees of elastic anisotropy.     

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.     

Elastic properties of inhomogeneous transversely isotropic rocks

The problem to determine the effective elastic moduli and velocities of elastic wave propagation in transversely isotropic solid containing aligned spheroidal inhomogeneities (solid grains, vugs and micro-cracks) has been solved using the self-consistent scheme known as effective medium approximation (EMA). Since a solution of so-called one-particle problem is a base for each self-consistent method, we solved this problem as a first step for spheroidal inhomogeneity in a transversely isotropic medium. In contrast to the known solution of this problem by Lin and Mura we obtained the expressions for the strain field inside inclusion in the explicit form (without quadratures). The obtained solution was used then in the symmetric variant of the EMA where each component of the system was considered as spheroid with its own aspect ratio. This approach was applied to simulate the properties of the rocks containing isolated pores and micro-cracks. For connected fluid-filled pores we used the anisotropic variant of the Gassmann theory. The results of the calculations, obtained for the effective elastic moduli, have been compared with the experimental data and theoretical simulations of the other authors. Unlike many other rock mechanics theories, EMA approximation gives correct elastic moduli values even in the nondilute concentration of inhomogeneities. The comparison of the experimental data for oriented crack system with the EMA predictions indicates their good correspondence.     

Variational bounds for anisotropic elastic multiphase composites with different shapes of inclusions

In the present work, unified formulae for the overall elastic bounds for multiphase transversely isotropic composites with different geometrical types of inclusions embedded in a matrix are calculated, including the spherical and long or short continuous cylindrical fiber cases. The influence of the different geometrical configurations of the inclusions on the composites is studied. The transversely isotropic effective bounds are obtained by applying the variational formulation for anisotropic composites developed by Willis, which relies on expressions for the static transversely isotropic Green’s function. Some numerical calculations and comparisons with the effective coefficients derived from the self-consistent approach, asymptotic homogenization method, and finite element method (FEM) are shown for different aspect ratio values, exhibiting good agreement.     

Anisotropic effective higher-order response of heterogeneous Cauchy elastic materials

The homogenization results obtained by Bacca et al. (2013a), to identify the effective second-gradient elastic materials from heterogeneous Cauchy elastic solids, are extended here to the case of phases having non-isotropic tensors of inertia. It is shown that the nonlocal constitutive tensor for the homogenized material depends on both the inertia properties of the RVE and the difference between the effective and the matrix local elastic tensors. Results show that: (i) orthotropic nonlocal effects follow from homogenization of a dilute distribution of aligned elliptical holes and, in the limit case, of cracks; (ii) even under the dilute assumption and isotropic local effective behaviour, homogenization may lead to effective nonlocal orthotropic properties.     

A continuum theory for isotropic two-phase elastic composites

The paper presents the effective stiffness theory for isotropie two-phase elastic composites. The theory predicts dispersion of longitudinal and transverse plane time-harmonic travelling waves. The limiting phase velocities at vanishing wave numbers serve in the determination of the elastic moduli of the equivalent homogeneous isotropic medium. These elastic moduli are compared with the effective moduli defined statically.     

Evaluation of the effective elastic moduli of tetragonal fiber-reinforced composites based on Maxwell’s concept of equivalent inhomogeneity

Maxwell’s concept of an equivalent inhomogeneity is employed for evaluating the effective elastic properties of tetragonal, fiber-reinforced, unidirectional composites with isotropic phases. The microstructure induced anisotropic effective elastic properties of the material are obtained by comparing the far-field solutions for the problem of a finite cluster of isotropic, circular cylindrical fibers embedded in an infinite isotropic matrix with that for the problem of a single, tetragonal, circular cylindrical equivalent inhomogeneity embedded in the same isotropic matrix. The former solutions precisely account for the interactions between all fibers in the cluster and for their geometrical arrangement. The solutions to several example problems that involve periodic (square arrays) composites demonstrate that the approach adequately captures microstructure induced anisotropy of the materials and provides reasonably accurate estimates of their effective elastic properties.     

Electroelastic behavior modeling of piezoelectric composite materials containing spatially oriented reinforcements

In this work, a modeling of electroelastic composite materials is proposed. The extension of the heterogeneous inclusion problem of Eshelby for elastic to electroelastic behavior is formulated in terms of four interaction tensors related to Eshelby’s electroelastic tensors. Analytical formulations of interaction tensors are presented for ellipsoidal inclusions. These tensors are basically used to derive the self-consistent model, Mori–Tanaka and dilute approaches. Numerical solutions are based on numerical computations of these tensors for various types of inclusions. Using the obtained results, effective electroelastic moduli of piezoelectric multiphase composites are investigated by an iterative procedure in the context of self-consistent scheme. Generalised Mori–Tanaka’s model and dilute approach are re-formulated and the three models are deeply analysed. Concentration tensors corresponding to each model are presented and relationships of effective coefficients are given. Numerical results of effective electroelastic moduli are presented for various types of piezoelectric inclusions and for various orientations and compared to existing experimental and theoretical ones.     

A unified model for piezocomposites with non-piezoelectric matrix and piezoelectric ellipsoidal inclusions

In this paper, the closed-form solutions of the electroelastic Eshelbys tensors of a piezoelectric ellipsoidal inclusion in an infinite non-piezoelectric matrix are obtained via the Greens function technique. Based on the generalized Budianskys energy-equivalence framework and the closed-form solutions of the electroelastic Eshelbys tensors, a unified model for multiphase piezocomposites with the non-piezoelectric matrix and piezoelectric inclusions is set up. The closed-form solutions of the effective electroelastic moduli of piezocomposites are also obtained. The unified model has a rigorous but simple form, which can describe the multiphase piezocomposites with different connectivities, such as 0–3, 1–3, 2–2, 2–3, 3–3 connectivities, etc. It can also describe the effects of non-interaction and interaction among the inclusions. As examples, the closed-form solutions of the effective electroelastic moduli are given by means of the dilute solution for the 0–3 piezocomposite with transversely isotropic piezoelectric spherical inclusions and by means of the dilute solution and the Mori–Tanakas method for the 1–3 piezocomposite with two kinds of transversely isotropic piezoelectric cylindrical inclusions. The predicted results are compared with experimental data, which shows that the theoretical curves calculated by means of the Mori–Tanakas method agree quite well with the experimental values, but the theoretical curves obtained by the dilute solution agree well with the experimental values only when the volume fraction of the ceramic inclusion is less than 0.3. The results in this paper can be used to analyze and design the multiphase piezocomposites.     

Partial Uniqueness and Obstruction to Uniqueness in Inverse Problems for Anisotropic Elastic Media

We consider the inverse problem of identifying the density and elastic moduli for three-dimensional anisotropic elastic bodies, given displacement and traction measurements made at their surface. These surface measurements are modelled by the dynamic Dirichlet-to-Neumann map on a finite time interval. For linear or nonlinear anisotropic hyperelastic bodies we show that the displacement-to-traction surface measurements do not change when the density and elasticity tensor in the interior are transformed tensorially by a change of coordinates fixing the surface of the body to first order. Our main tool, a new approach in inverse problems for elastic media, is the representation of the equations of motion in a covariant form (following Marsden and Hughes, 1983) that preserves the underlying physics.In the case of classical linear elastodynamics we then investigate how the type of anisotropy changes under coordinate transformations. That is, we analyze the orbits of general linear, anisotropic elasticity tensors under the action by pull-back of diffeomorphisms that fix the surface of the elastic body to first order, and derive a pointwise characterization of parts of the orbits under this action. For example, we show that the orbit of isotropic elastic media, at any point in the body, consists of some transversely isotropic and some orthotropic elastic media. We then derive the first uniqueness result in the inverse problem for anisotropic media using surface displacement-traction data: uniqueness of three elastic moduli for tensors in the orbit of isotropic elasticity tensors. ^†Partially supported by an MSRI Postdoctoral Fellowship. Research at MSRI is supported in part by NSF grant DMS-9850361. This work was conducted while the first author was a Gibbs Instructor at Yale University. ^‡Partially supported by an MSRI Postdoctoral Fellowship, and by NSF grant DMS-9801664 (9996350).     

Mechanical properties of single-walled carbon nanotube bundles as bulk materials

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) in crystalline bundles may exhibit a transition in which the cross-sections of tubes turn from perfectly circular to hexagonal, depending upon the tube diameter and externally applied pressure, and this structural instability leads to an abrupt change in the bulk elastic properties of SWNT bundles. This paper presents a hybrid atom/continuum model to study the bulk elastic properties of SWNT bundles, and the predicted characteristics of this structural instability agree well with the experimental observations available in the literature. Linearized bulk elastic properties of SWNT bundles with respect to a stable configuration are transversely isotropic and hence can be characterized by five independent elastic moduli. A complete set of these five moduli is predicted for the first time. It is found that the deformability of tube cross-sections play a dominant role in characterizing the transverse moduli.     

Neo-Hookean fiber-reinforced composites in finite elasticity

The response of a transversely isotropic fiber-reinforced composite made out of two incompressible neo-Hookean phases undergoing finite deformations is considered. An expression for the effective energy-density function of the composite in terms of the properties of the phases and their spatial distribution is developed. For the out-of-plane shear and extension modes this expression is based on an exact solution for the class of composite cylinder assemblages. To account for the in-plane shear mode we incorporate an exact result that was recently obtained for a special class of transversely isotropic composites. In the limit of small deformation elasticity the expression for the effective behavior agrees with the well-known Hashin-Shtrikman bounds. The predictions of the proposed constitutive model are compared with corresponding numerical simulation of a composite with a hexagonal unit cell. It is demonstrated that the proposed model accurately captures the overall response of the periodic composite under any general loading modes.