Young's modulus of coated inclusion composites by the generalized mechanics-of-materials (GMM) approach

Abstract

A micromechanical model of the Young's modulus for three special cases of composites - continuous unidirectional fiber composites, particulate composites and periodically bilaminate composites - has been developed within the framework of the mechanic-of-materials approach. Parallel-series (PS) and series-parallel (SP) schemes were adopted based upon opposing combination sequence of the parallel model (direct rule-of-mixture) and the series model (inverse rule-of-mixture). By expressing the inclusion's geometrical characteristics in terms of reinforcement volume fraction and interphase volume, a set of reinforcement parameters for the inclusion and its interphase are extracted. Based on reinforcement parameters for the special cases, those of more general cases, which are intermediates of the special cases, are obtained by curve-fitting approximation. Young's modulus of simple cases such as coated fiber composites in longitudinal direction and coated lamina composites are shown to be approximate to the parallel and series models respectively. Cases such as coated fiber composites in transverse direction and coated particulate composites are compared with other results and observed to be highly and moderately conservative by the PS and SP techniques respectively.