Cyclically thermomechanical plasticity analysis for a broken fiber in ductile matrix composites using shear lag model

The local cyclic plasticity of the interface around a broken fiber in ductile matrix composites under the in-phase and out-of-phase thermomechanical fatigue (TMF) loads is analyzed by using the single-fiber shear-lag model. The elastic, perfectly-plastic shear stress–strain relation is used to model the thermomechanical behavior of the fiber/matrix interface. It is shown that the alternating plastic shearing of the interface takes place under an appropriate combination of mechanical stress and thermal load. In the stress versus temperature diagram the so-called cyclic plasticity zone is identified. A new parameter, i.e. the cyclic plasticity length, L−s, is found which is smaller than the yield length, Ls, caused by monotonic loading. The closed-form solutions for L−s, Ls, the fiber stress profiles and the cyclic plastic shear strain range, Δγp, are obtained. L−s and Δγp increase for both the in-phase and out-of-phase TMF conditions as the mechanical load and/or thermal load increase. The in-phase condition produces a higher plastic shear strain range than the out-of-phase condition does. The solutions obtained may be used for modeling fiber/matrix debonding caused by the fiber breakage under TMF fatigue loading.