Damage analysis and elasto-plastic behavior of metal matrix composites using the finite element method

Damage and elasto-plastic analysis is of particular importance to metal matrix composites since the onset of damage and plastic yielding begins very early in the loading process as compared to the composites ultimate strength. Voyiadjis and Park [Anisotropic damage of fiber reinforced MMC using an overall damage analysis. J. Engng Med., ASCE, 1995, 121(11), 1209-1217] proposed an overall anisotropic damage model which accounts for all types of damage as a single damage variable. A finite element analysis is presented here using the proposed theory for quantifying damage and predicting the failure loads. This is applied to two problems, the dog-bone shaped uniaxially loaded specimen and the center-cracked laminate composite plate. Finite element analysis results for uniaxial loading of laminate plates using the proposed model show good agreement with experiments. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.