Investigation on a direct modeling strategy for the effective elastic moduli prediction of composite material

A direct modeling strategy to predict the effective moduli of composite materials based on the finite element method is investigated. The model is constructed from equal-size domains, which are then assigned with material labels to distinguish constituent phases. The effects of the size of the domains and their further refinement (element density) on the predictions of the effective elastic moduli (Young's modulus and Poisson ratio) are discussed under the plane configuration for two-phase bi-continuous composites and for the three-dimensional case. The results are compared with the well-known Hashin–Shtrikman bounds and the general self-consistent method. The numerical predictions agree with the analytical bounds and provide valuable information on the elastic properties of composites with random constituent phase distribution when only phase properties and volume fractions of each phase are available.