MICROMECHANICS AND EFFECTIVE TRANSVERSE ELASTIC-MODULI OF COMPOSITES WITH RANDOMLY LOCATED ALIGNED CIRCULAR FIBERS

Based on the two-dimensional (plane-strain) micromechanical fiber inte raction framework, effective transverse elastic moduli of two-phase br ittle matrix composites containing many randomly located yet unidirect ionally aligned circular fibers are investigated in this paper. The fi bers are characterized as infinitely long and equal-sized inclusions. By employing the local pairwise fiber interaction formulation coupled with the ensemble-area averaged field equations, the proposed approxim ate analysis leads to a novel, higher-order (in fiber volume fraction) , and accurate method for the prediction of effective transverse elast ic moduli of two-phase fiber reinforced composites. In addition, the p roposed micromechanical approach is extended to predict the effective transverse shear velocities of fiber suspensions with randomly located aligned rigid fibers. Comparisons with experimental data, Hashin's va riational bounds, and improved three-point bounds are also presented t o illustrate the predictive capability of the proposed method for fibe r-reinforced composites. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.