DYNAMIC STRESS-CONCENTRATIONS IN REINFORCED COMPOSITES

Mechanical disturbances propagating in solid media give rise to dynamic stress concentrations when a material discontinuity is encountered. Composite materials are susceptible to damage and failure because the reinforcing particles or fibers present such discontinuities compared to the elastic properties of the surrounding binder. By considering the scattering of elastic waves from spherical elastic particles and cylindrical elastic fibers, embedded in solid binders we give, in this paper, analytic expressions for the corresponding dynamic stress concentrations in particle- and fiber-reinforced composite materials.