EFFECTIVE ELASTIC-MODULI OF 2-DIMENSIONAL SOLIDS WITH MULTIPLE CRACKS

An accurate method which directly accounts for the interactions betwee n different microcracks is used for analyzing the elastic problem of m ultiple cracks solids. The effective elastic moduli for randomly orien ted cracks and parallel cracks are evaluated for the representative vo lume element (RVE) with microcracks in infinite media. The numerical r esults are compared with those from various micromechanics models and experimental data. These results show that the present method is simpl e and provides a direct and efficient approach to dealing with elastic solids containing multiple cracks.