EFFECT OF VOID SHAPE ON THE MACROSCOPIC RESPONSE OF NONLINEAR POROUS SOLIDS

The macroscopic response of an incompressible power-law matrix contain ing aligned spheroidal voids is investigated. The voids are assumed to be arranged in a uniform array, and the response of the solid is eval uated by isolating a typical block of the material containing a single void. The requisite boundary value problem for this ''unit cell'' is solved using a spectral method which is an adaption of that used by Le e and Mear ''Axisymmetric Deformation of Power-law Solids containing E lliptical Inhomogeneities. Part I: Rigid Inclusions'', J. Mech. Phys. Solids, (1992) 8, 1805. Attention is restricted to axisymmetric deform ation, and results for the macroscopic strain-rates (or strains) are p resented for a range of void shape, void volume concentrations, harden ing exponents and remote stress triaxialities.