Composite materials reinforced with a system of three straight,mutually orthogonal fibers

An extension of existing methods of calculating fibrous composites to the case of reinforcement in three mutually perpendicular directions is presented. The basic approach involves the introduction of a "modified" matrix, the properties of which are determined in terms of the elastic moduli of the binder and the reinforcement coefficient in one of the three directions. Approximate expressions are obtained for the elastic characteristics of materials with a high-modulus reinforcing phase. There is a considerable increase in the transverse modulus by comparison with the shear modulus, even for a low reinforcement coefficient in the third direction.