THE OVER-ALL INSTANTANEOUS PROPERTIES OF METAL-MATRIX COMPOSITES

A micromechanical analysis is presented for the determination of the instantaneous effective properties of metal-matrix composites, which consist of elastic fibers reinforcing elastic-viscoplastic matrices. At any stage of loading, the current behavior of the initially isotropic matrix exhibits anisotropy that is load-level- and history-dependent. It is shown that the knowledge of the local instantaneous properties of the inelastic-matrix and elastic-fiber constants provides, in conjunction with the micromechanical analysis, the over-all instantaneous stiffnesses of the metal-matrix composite. The method is illustrated for the prediction of the instantaneous properties of unidirectional and laminated composite materials.