Prediction of the Elastic Moduli of Composites with Isolated Inclusions by the Method of Effective Volumes of Averaging

A method for calculating the macroscopic elastic moduli of isotropic composites with isolated inclusions is proposed. The distinctive feature of the method is calculation of the concentration factors of average strains and stresses by using the effective volumes of averaging of phases. The effective volumes are found by solving the boundary-value problem of elastic deformation of the representative cell of a two-phase composite. In this case, the limiting version of a conventionally porous composite with zero material constants of inclusions is taken into account. A good agreement between calculation results and experimental data is obtained for various combinations of the elastic moduli and volume fraction of inclusions.