Modelling of damage in particulate metal matrix composites

A model is proposed which incorporates the effect of damage on the tensile stress-strain response of particulate metal matrix composites. The model is based on a previous incremental self consistent approach developed for the modeling of undamaged behavior. Damage is modeled by treating the composite as a two phase material (undamaged and damaged) and allowing the relative fraction of the damage ''phase'' to increase during the test. The stress redistribution between these phases is of special interest. The calculation is performed with a constant strain rate hypothesis. The model is presented together with a method to calculate the fraction of damaged zones. The model is then used to predict the effect of some microstructural parameters on the tensile behavior of a damaging material.