Overall damage and elastoplastic deformation in fibrous metal matrix composites

A phenomenological constitutive model for fibrous composite materials with a ductile matrix is postulated incorporating damage mechanics with micromechanical behavior. The model is first formulated in an undamaged composite system and then transformed consistently achieved in terms of an overall damage tensor M for the whole composite. In the process of formulating this model, interesting results are obtained demonstrating the necessity of using a non-associated flow rule for plasticity in the damaged composite system together with a Hill's type yield criterion. It is also shown that using a Ziegler-Prager kinematic hardening rule for the ductile matrix leads to a general kinematic hardening rule for the composite that is a combination of a generalized Ziegler-Prager model and a Phillips-type model. Finally, an explicit expression for the elastoplastic stiffness tensor for the damaged composite is obtained.