Incremental damage mechanics of particle or short-fiber reinforced composites including cracking damage

Abstract

In particle or short-fiber reinforced composites, cracking of the reinforcements is a significant damage mode because the cracked reinforcements lose load carrying capacity. This paper deals with an incremental damage theory of particle or short-fiber reinforced composites. The composite undergoing damage process contains intact and broken reinforcements in a matrix. To describe the load carrying capacity of cracked reinforcement, the average stress of cracked ellipsoidal inhomogeneity in an infinite body as proposed in the previous paper is introduced. An incremental constitutive relation on particle or short-fiber reinforced composites including progressive cracking of the reinforcements is developed based on Eshelby’s (1957) equivalent inclusion method and Mon and Tanaka’s (1973) mean field concept. Influence of the cracking damage on the stress-strain response of composites is demonstrated.