A macroscopic model for materials reinforced by flexible membranes

A macroscopic model is presented aimed at assessing the macroscopic elastic behaviour of materials reinforced by periodically distributed flexible membranes. According to this model, called multiphase model, the reinforced material is described not as a single homogenized continuum as in the classical homogenization approach, but as the superposition of two mutually interacting continuous media, namely the matrix phase and the reinforcement phase. It is shown in particular how such a model allows to capture both scale and boundary effects, which cannot be accounted for in a classical homogenization procedure.