Elastic Constants of Textured Short-Fiber Composites

Published

January 1, 1996

Author(s)

Martin Dunn, H M. Ledbetter, Paul R. Heyliger, C S. Choi

Abstract

We studied the transversely isotropic elastic response of a series of textured short-fiber SiC Al metal-matrix composites. By texture we mean the preferred orientaion of the short fibers. We fully characterized the microstructure of the extruded SiC/Al short-fiber composites through a combination of mass-density measurements optical and scanning electron microscopy and neutron diffraction. We measured all components of the overall elastic-stiffness tensor of the composites using two methods: MHz-frequency pulse-echo ultrasonics and kHz-frequency acoustic-resonance spectroscopy the latter being the first application of the method to short fiber or particle reinforced composites. We propose a relatively simple micromechanics model to predict the entire set of elastic constants and give simple results for orientation distributions of practical significance. The predictions are in excellent agreement with measurements.

Citation

Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids

Volume

44

Issue

No. 9

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

anisotropic material, composite, microstructures, neutron diffraction, particle-reinforced material, texture

Citation

Dunn, M. , Ledbetter, H. , Heyliger, P. and Choi, C. (1996), Elastic Constants of Textured Short-Fiber Composites, Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids (Accessed May 10, 2025)