A THERMO-MICROMECHANICAL THEORY FOR EFFECTIVE ELASTIC-CONSTANTS OF COMPOSITE-MATERIALS

A thermo-micromechanical approach is presented to estimate the constit utive response of fiber reinforced composites. The approach is based u pon thermodynamic considerations involving Helmholtz and Gibbs free en ergies and micromechanical considerations involving strain and stress fields associated with the fiber and matrix components. The results ob tained for principal elastic constants for polymer and metal matrix co mposites show good correlation with the available experimental data an d with other popular models. The parametric results include cases of f iber anisotropy and relative stiffness variation between fiber and mat rix materials.