ANALYSIS OF TENSILE PROPERTIES FOR A WHISKER-REINFORCED METAL MATRIX COMPOSITE

A micro-mechanical model is used to analyse the tensile properties of a ductile metal reinforced by short fibres. It is assumed that fibre alignment has been obtained during processing, and the numerical analysis for a representative unit cell also relies on the assumption of a periodic array of fibres. The special unit cell model developed here represents neighbouring fibres shifted relative to one another. Comparison of results for rigid fibres with results accounting for fibre elasticity shows that apart from the initial elastic range the overall stress-strain behaviour is dominated by matrix plasticity. The analyses focus on uniaxial tension in the fibre direction, but also the effect of stress triaxiality is investigated. Quite good agreement is obtained between the model predictions and published experimental results. The sensitivity of the overall stress-strain behaviour to the fibre volume fraction, the fibre length, and fibre spacings is studied by a number of analyses. © 1990.