Influence of asymptotically-limiting micromechanical properties on the effective behaviour of fibre-supported composite materials

The macroscale tensile behaviour of slender fibre-supported composite bodies is examined via an asymptotic homogenisation approach. A series of semi-analytic three-dimensional models for linearly elastic fibre-reinforced materials under extreme, but realistic, limiting microscale mechanical properties are derived, and implemented using COMSOL Multiphysics. The key limits investigated are cases involving incompressibility of one component material, and those where dramatic differences in the shear moduli of the component materials exist within the composite body. Discrepancies are observed between the effective macroscale properties obtained from a standard model, based on the published literature, and those obtained from the models of micromechanical limiting behaviours derived here. Such discrepancies have significant implications when using such models to optimise the material properties of composite materials.