Fiber interactions and effective elasto-plastic properties of short-fiber composites

The fiber-fiber or fiber-matrix interactions and effective elasto-plastic p roperties of aligned short-fiber-reinforced metal matrix composite are stud ied by using a micromechanical model and the finite element method. The fib er is assumed to be elastic and the matrix to be elasto-viscoplastic contin uum. The local elasto-plastic stress fields of a unit cell in composite are examined in order to understand the mechanism of inelastic deformations an d interactions between fibers or between fiber and matrix. Effective elasto -plastic properties of B/Al composites are predicted by the domain average method. It is shown that present predictions are in agreement with the expe rimental data for the B/Al system. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All right s reserved.