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 field of composite mechanics. The new method, called strain-compatible method of cells, exhibits the so called shear coupling effect, absent in the generalized method of cells. Because of this shear coupling, the method is especially useful when shear effects are important. In the present study, the new method is used to predict the micro-stresses and to model the effective 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 finite 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 finite element method, and the classical Reuss and Voigt approximations is presented.