Stress concentrations in the particulate composite with transversely isotropic phases

The accurate series solution have been obtained of the elasticity theory problem for a transversely isotropic solid containing a finite or infinite periodic array of anisotropic spherical inclusions. The method of solution has been developed based on the multipole expansion technique. The basic idea of method consists in expansion the displacement vector into a series over the set of vectorial functions satisfying the governing equations of elastic equilibrium. The re-expansion formulae derived for these functions provide exact satisfaction of the interfacial boundary conditions. As a result, the primary spatial boundary-value problem is reduced to an infinite set of linear algebraic equations. The method has been applied systematically to solve for three models of composite, namely a single inclusion, a finite array of inclusions and an infinite periodic array of inclusions, respectively, embedded in a transversely isotropic solid. The numerical results are presented demonstrating that elastic properties mismatch, anisotropy degree, orientation of the anisotropy axes and interactions between the inclusions can produce significant local stress concentration and, thus, affect greatly the overall elastic behavior of composite.