Constitutive relation of discontinuous reinforced metal-matrix composites

A micromechanical model is developed to simulate the mechanical behaviors o f discontinuous reinforced composites. The analysis for a representative un it cell is based on the assumption of a periodic array of aligned reinforce ments. The minimum energy principle is used to determine the unknown coeffi cients of the displacement field of the unit cell. The constitutive behavio r of composites is studied to obtain the relationship between the main vari ables of matrix and reinforcements. It is concluded that the how strength o f composites is strongly influenced by volume fraction, aspect ratio of rei nforcement, and the strain hardening exponent of matrix. An analytical cons titutive relation of composites is obtained. The predicted results are in a greement with the existing experimental and numerical results.