Stress-force-fabric relationship (S-F-F) stands for the explicitly formulat
ed relationship between the components of the stress tensor for an assembly
of particles in static equilibrium and anisotropy tensors representing eit
her existing or load-induced biases in the spatial distributions of some re
levant microscopic parameters. In this paper, the S-F-F relationship is for
mulated for ellipsoids and verified using results of three-dimensional nume
rical simulations with assemblies of prolate spheroids. The implications of
the relationship regarding the effect of particle shape and contributions
of different forms of anisotropy to the material shear strength of such ass
emblies are discussed. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.