Numerical simulation on elastic properties of short-fiber-reinforced metal matrix composites: Effect of fiber orientation

To investigate the effect of fiber orientation on the effective elastic properties of short-fiber-reinforced metal matrix composites, the two-step mean-field homogenization procedures including the D-I/Reuss, M-T/Reuss, D-I/Reuss, M-T/Voigt and D-M/V-R models are introduced and the corresponding numerical implementations are detailed. Compared with the RVE based FE homogenization method, the two-step mean-field homogenization procedures: D-I/Reuss, M-T/Reuss, D-I/Reuss, M-T/Voigt and D-M/V-R models to predict the effective elastic properties of short-fiber-reinforced metal matrix composites are validated. The simulation results show that the effective elastic moduli E22 and E33 of short-fiber-reinforced metal matrix composites with the aligned fibers reach the minimums around θ=60° and 30°, respectively, but not 90° or 0°, while the effective shear modulus G23 reaches a maximum at θ=45° and shows a symmetrical distribution. For short-fiber reinforced metal matrix composites with the planarly randomly distributed fibers, the effective elastic moduli E22 and E33 are close to those of short-fiber reinforced metal matrix composites with the aligned fibers presenting the orientation angle θ of 35° and 55°, respectively, but not 45°, while the effective shear modulus G23 is close to those of short-fiber reinforced metal matrix composites reinforced by the aligned fibers with the orientation angles of both 20° and 70°.