Vapor-deposition techniques are emerging as an economical and flexible
way of fabricating multiphase materials with spatially varying archit
ectures. The aim of this work is to design architectures that exploit
the concept of functional grading. We consider two basic problems; the
first is the computation of the response of an infinite plate with a
circular hole to a remote symmetric radial load, and the second is the
computation of the response of an infinite matrix to a uniform temper
ature change when the matrix is perfectly bonded to an infinitely long
, rigid, circularly cylindrical fiber with a zero coefficient of therm
al expansion. For each configuration the variation of the material pro
perties with position is determined so that the body yields everywhere
at the same load, and we compute how this variation can be effected t
hrough variation of the distribution of two phases. We show that for e
ach configuration the load required to initiate yielding can be double
d if the material is engineered properly.