Elastic-plastic properties of metal matrix composites: Validation of mean-field approaches

Several micromechanical and numerical approaches to estimating the effective properties of heterogeneous media are analyzed. First, micromechanical mean-field estimates of elastic moduli for selected metal matrix composite systems are compared with the results of finite element calculations performed for two simplified unit cells: spherical and cylindrical. Advantages and deficiencies of such numerical verification of analytical homogenization schemes are indicated. Next, predictions of both approaches are compared with available experimental data for two composite systems for tension and compression tests in the elastic-plastic regime using tangent and secant linearization procedures. In the examined range of strain and ceramic volume content, both the Mori-Tanaka averaging scheme and the generalized self-consistent scheme lead to reliable predictions when combined with the tangent linearization, while the use of secant moduli results in a too stiff response. It is also found that the mean-field predictions for a small ceramic volume content are very close to the results obtained from the finite-element analysis of a spherical unit cell. •A synthetic approach to estimating effective properties of metal matrix composites is presented.•Elastic and elastic-plastic properties of two-phase metal-ceramic composites are analyzed.•Several mean-field models and finite-element predictions are compared to experimental data.•Detailed comparison of the three types of data is made for different composite systems.•Analytic approaches are identified that have provided most reliable predictions.