FE investigation of the effect of particle distribution on the uniaxial stress–strain behaviour of particulate reinforced metal-matrix composites

A multi-particle 2D finite element model of a 20% particulate reinforced metal-matrix composite was developed on a statistical basis taking into account the correlations between the position, size and orientation of the ceramic particles in the matrix. The stress–strain curves in tension and compression given by the clustered multi-particle model are compared with the curves obtained from one-particle unit cell simulations. It is shown that clustering of particles increases the plastic strain accumulated in the matrix leading to a higher strain hardening and thus to a higher flow stress. The size of the representative volume element (RVE) should be at least equal to the correlation length of the geometrically relevant correlation functions, which was ∼2.4 times larger than the average interparticle distance for the experimentally studied case. Reasonable agreement is obtained between computed residual strains and data available in the literature.