An inelastic micro/macro theory for hybrid smart/metal composites

Abstract

Motivated by the emerging concept of including metal phases within piezoelectric and other smart structures and materials, this paper presents a micro/macro theory for determining the coupled thermo-electro-magneto-elasto-plastic behavior of arbitrary composite laminates. The approach involves two models capable of analyzing geometries that include inelastic materials. The first is the electro-magnetic generalized method of cells (EMGMC) (Micromechanical Prediction of the Effective Behavior of Fully Coupled Electro-Magneto-Thermo-Elastic Multiphase Composites, 2000. [1]) micromechanics model. EMGMC has been reformulated to improve its computational efficiency and has been extended to admit arbitrary anisotropic local material behavior (in terms of the thermal response, mechanical response, electric response, magnetic response, as well as the coupling behavior) and inelasticity. The second model is classical lamination theory, which has also been extended for arbitrary anisotropic material behavior and electro-magnetic and inelastic effects. The end result is a coupled theory that employs EMGMC to provide the homogenized behavior of the composite plies that constitute the thermo-electro-magneto-elasto-plastic laminate. Sample results, which address the inelastic response of a hybrid smart/metal matrix composite laminate, are presented.