Radially transverse isotropic inclusions in isotropic elastic media: Local fields, neutral inclusions, effective elastic properties

Abstract

Radially transverse isotropic inclusions in homogeneous isotropic elastic host media are considered. Mellin transform method is used for solution of the volume integral equation of the problem for an isolated inclusion subjected to a constant external stress (strain) field. The tensor structure of the solution is revealed with precision to three scalar functions of the radial coordinate, and the system of ordinary differential equations for these functions is derived. For multilayered radially transverse isotropic inclusions with constant elastic coefficients inside layers, explicit solution of these equations is obtained. An efficient numerical algorithm of solution for inclusions with an arbitrary number of the layers is proposed. Neutral inclusions that do not disturb homogeneous external fields applied to the medium are considered. It is shown that an inclusion with an isotropic core and radially transverse isotropic external layer can be weak neutral by appropriate choice of the layer elastic constants. The effective field method is used for determination of the effective elastic stiffness tensor of a homogeneous isotropic medium containing a random set of radially transverse isotropic inclusions.