EFFECT OF FIBER FRACTURE AND INTERFACIAL DEBONDING ON THE EVOLUTION OF DAMAGE IN METAL-MATRIX COMPOSITES

A new approach for modeling the behavior of laminated composite struct ures using computational methods is presented, considering damage evol ution at the micromechanical level. Micromechanical models are develop ed to predict the stress-strain response of a composite lamina explici tly accounting for the local damage mechanisms such as fiber fracture and interfacial bonding. The model is applied to metal matrix composit es and hence the inelastic constitutive behavior of the matrix phase i s included. The stochastic variation of the fiber properties is incorp orated in this simulation using the two-parameter Weibull model. The e ffect of fiber volume fraction and the properties of the fiber, matrix and interface on the damage evolution is studied using this approach. A constitutive damage tensor for the composite lamina is developed fr om the micromechanical models which can be input into laminate structu ral analysis codes. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All ri ghts reserved.