Paper number 862

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PROBABILISTIC AND CONTINUUM DESCRIPTIONS OF THE MECHANICAL BEHAVIOR OF BRITTLE-MATRIX COMPOSITES

François Hild¹

1LMT-Cachan, ENS de Cachan / UMR CNRS / University Paris 6
61 avenue du Président Wilson, F-94235 Cachan Cedex, France

Summary

Internal variables modeling the degradation mechanisms occurring in brittle-matrix composites are related to microscopic quantities by using a probabilistic approach to failure. Two examples are presented. The first one deals with matrix-cracking and the second one is concerned with debonding and slip. In both cases, it is shown that in general the moments of order higher than one are needed to describe the behavior in a Continuum Mechanics framework.

Keywords

Continuum thermodynamics, state potential, internal variables, matrix-cracking, debonding and slip, fiber breakage, failure probability.