A strain-compatible method for micromechanical analysis of multi-phase composites

A new method for micromechanical analysis of multi-phase composites is presented. The new method is inspired by the generalized method of cells which is widely utilized in the ®eld of composite mechanics. The new method, called strain-compatible method of cells, exhibits the so called shear coupling e€ect, absent in the generalized method of cells. Because of this shear coupling, the method is especially useful when shear e€ects are important. In the present study, the new method is used to predict the micro-stresses and to model the e€ective elastic constants of unidirectional composites. Results obtained with the strain-compatible method of cells compare very well with those of well-established traditional tools like ®nite element analysis. A variety of numerical results comparing the accuracy and performance of the new method with those of the generalized method of cells, the ®nite element method, and the classical Reuss and Voigt approximations is presented