Experimental investigations have illustrated that unidirectional metal matr
ix composites (MMCs) show asymmetric behaviour under uniaxial tensile and c
ompressive loading. This asymmetry occurs when the material is loaded along
the fibre direction and also when loaded in the transverse direction. In t
his paper, results from finite element micromechanical models are presented
. The models were used to study the asymmetric behaviour of unidirectional
fibre reinforced MMCs subjected to longitudinal and transverse loading. The
effects of the thermal residual stresses arising from the manufacturing pr
ocess were included in the study. Also, the influence of the degree of bond
ing of fibre to matrix was examined, from perfectly bonded to completely de
bonded. Results reveal that thermal residual stresses are responsible for t
he asymmetric behaviour of the MMCs in the longitudinal direction. In trans
verse loading, both the degree of interface bonding and residual stresses a
ccount for the asymmetric behaviour. The predicted stress - strain response
of the M M C shows good agreement with the available experimental data for
both both tensile and compressive loading. Results also suggest that in or
der to predict accurately the yielding behaviour of MMCs, the current symme
tric yield criteria require modification.