Tensile strength of fibre-reinforced metal matrix composites with non-uniform fibre spacing

Abstract

The influence of non-uniform fibre spacing on the strength of unidirectional fibre-reinforced metal matrix composites was studied by means of a Monte-Carlo computer simulation experiment. The influence of yield stress of the matrix and scatter of the fibre strength on the strength of composites were also studied for both uniform and non-uniform fibre spacings. It was demonstrated that (1) the strength of composites with non-uniform fibre spacing is lower than that with uniform spacing due to the high stress concentration arising from the breakage of fibres, and (2) the reduction in strength of composites due to the non-uniformity increases with increasing scatter of fibre strength. For both cases of uniform and non-uniform spacings, the following tendencies were observed : (a) the strength of composites increases but then decreases with increasing yield stress of matrix, (b) it is very sensitive to yield stress of the matrix when the scatter of fibre strength is large but not when it is small, and (c) it decreases but then increases with increasing scatter of fibre strength when the yield stress of the matrix is high, while it decreases monotonically with increasing scatter of fibre strength when the yield stress is low.