Prediction of elastic properties of heterogeneous materials with complex microstructures

The phase-field microelasticity (PFM) is adapted into a homogenization process to predict all the effective elastic constants of three-dimensional heterogeneous materials with complex microstructures. Comparison between the PFM approach and the Hashin-Shtrikman variational approach is also given. Using 3D images of two-phase heterogeneous media with regular and irregular microstructures, results indicate that the PFM approach can accurately take into account the effects of both elastic anisotropy and inhomogeneity of materials with arbitrary microstructure geometry, such as complex porous media with suspended inclusions.