A CRITICAL-EVALUATION FOR A CLASS OF MICROMECHANICS MODELS

New results are derived for the effective elastic properties of composite materials composed of a continuous matrix phase containing a highly concentrated suspension of rigid spherical inclusions. The composite is of the type that admits the limiting case of full packing of the inclusion phase corresponding to a polydisperse suspension. The resulting analytical forms from several different theoretical micro-mechanics models are found to vary widely and this provides a highly discriminating means of comparing them with respect to their physical significance. The various models also are evaluated with critical experimental data. Some extensions of the results are provided for fiber composite materials. © 1990.