NUMERICAL SOFTWARE FOR FILIMENTARY METAL MATRIX COMPOSITE MATERIALS

ANALYTICAL METHODOLOGY AND NUMERICAL CODE WILL BE DEVELOPED FOR THE COMPUTATION OF EFFECTIVE PARAMETER REPRESENTATIONS FOR COMPOSITE MATERIAL. WE SHALL TREAT FILIMENTARY METAL MATRIX COMPOSITE MATERIALS USING THE METHOD OF HOMOGENIZATION DEVELOPED OVER THE PAST TEN YEARS. THIS ANALYTICAL METHOD LEADS TO CONSTANT COEFFICIENT MODELS FOR THE MACROSCOPIC BEHAVIOR OF THE COMPOSITE STRUCTURE. BY ADAPTING SOME RECENT RESEARCH RESULTS OF BEGIS, ET AL., WE CAN COMPUTE THE MICROSCOPIC STRESS DISTRIBUTIONS IN THE MATERIAL. THESE LOCAL STRESS FORCES ARE IMPORTANT BECAUSE THEY CAN INITIATE CRACKS AND DELAMINATIONS. OVERSTRESSES AT THE MICROSCOPIC LEVEL MAY PRODUCE FIBER RUPTURES IN FILIMENTARY MATERIALS. THE SOFTWARE WILL CONSIST OF NUMERICAL REDUCTION ROUTINES FOR THE HOMOGENIZATION METHOD, ASSOCIATED FINITE ELEMENT SOFTWARE, AND COMMAND LANGUAGE AND INTERFACE STRUCTURE DESIGNED TO PERMIT EASY INTERACTION WITH THE SYSTEM AND TO FACILITATE DATA ENTRY.