Debonding of short fibres among particulates in a metal matrix composite

• Published in: International journal of solids and structures Vol. 40; no. 25; pp. 6957 - 6967
• Main Author: Tvergaard, Viggo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.12.2003; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Condensed matter: structure, mechanical and thermal properties; Exact sciences and technology; Fatigue, brittleness, fracture, and cracks; Fracture mechanics (crack, fatigue, damage...); Fracture mechanics, fatigue and cracks; Fractures; Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications); Mechanical and acoustical properties of condensed matter; Mechanical properties and methods of testing. Rheology. Fracture mechanics. Tribology; Mechanical properties of solids; Metals. Metallurgy; Physics; Solid mechanics; Structural and continuum mechanics
• ISSN: 0020-7683; 1879-2146
• DOI: 10.1016/S0020-7683(03)00347-0

A numerical analysis is carried out for the development of damage by fibre–matrix debonding in aluminium reinforced by aligned, short SiC fibres. A unit cell-model that has earlier been applied to study materials with arrays of transversely staggered fibres is here extended to contain a number of differently shaped fibres or particulates in each unit cell, thus representing debonding of a relatively long discontinuous fibre among particulates that do not debond. Interfacial failure is modelled in terms of a cohesive zone model that accounts for decohesion by normal separation as well as by tangential separation. It is found that the evolution of failure can depend rather strongly on the distribution of particulates around a fibre subject to debonding.