Interface Parameters of Composite Materials with an Elliptical Cross-Section Fiber Bundle

Abstract

How to design the interfacial properties is a significant fundamental issue in the field of the composite materials, while little work was concerned with the mechanical design of the interface for the fiber reinforced polymer. In the present work, a fiber bundle embedded in the matrix was described as a transversely isotropic material. Based on the imperfect interface conditions, the interface parameters were derived to satisfy the neutral conditions for the composite materials reinforced by the elliptical cross-section fiber bundle. It is found that the interface parameter is not always associated with the applied loading in the case of the anti-plane shear. In the state of equal-biaxial tension, the normal interface parameter is merely related to the mechanical properties of components except for the shape of the fiber bundle, but independent of the loading magnitude. In the other cases of pure shear and uniaxial tension, the neutral interface does not exist except that the fiber bundle has a circular cross-section. It is also found that the interface parameters can be expressed in the forms similar to that for an isotropic inclusion by using Kolosov constant in the in-plane deformations.