Transverse conductivity and longitudinal shear of elliptic fiber composite with imperfect interface

Abstract

The paper addresses the problem of calculating the local fields and effective transport properties and longitudinal shear stiffness of elliptic fiber composite with imperfect interface. The Rayleigh type representative unit cell approach has been used. The micro geometry of composite is modeled by a periodic structure with a unit cell containing multiple elliptic inclusions. The developed method combines the superposition principle, the technique of complex potentials and certain new results in the theory of special functions. An appropriate choice of the potentials provides reducing the boundary-value problem to an ordinary, well-posed set of linear algebraic equations. The exact finite form expression of the effective stiffness tensor has been obtained by analytical averaging the local gradient and flux fields. The convergence of solution has been verified and the parametric study of the model has been performed. The obtained accurate, statistically meaningful results illustrate a substantial effect of imperfect interface on the effective behavior of composite.