Effective Thermoelastic Moduli of a Unidirectional Fiber Composite Containing Interfacial Arc Microcracks

Abstract

In this work, we have employed a variational model to examine the effect of fiber-matrix debonding on the thermoelastic response of a unidirectional composite. The model is designed to represent the concentric cylinder model of a composite representative volume element and it contains the capability to enhance the accuracy of a given numerical solution. The effect of the extent of debonding as well as fiber volume fraction on all the effective moduli of the unidirectional composite has been examined. Numerical results reported in the literature are compared with the results of the model developed in the present study to examine the quality of the model.