Thermal expansion of three-phase composite materials

Exact expressions are found for overall thermal expansion coefficients of a composite medium consisting of three perfectly-bonded transversely isotropic phases of cylindrical shape and arbitrary transverse geometry. The results show that macroscopic thermal expansion coefficients depend only on the thermoelastic constants and volume fractions of the phases, and on the overall compliance. The derivation is based on a decomposition procedure which indicates that spatially uniform elastic strain fields can be created in certain heterogeneous media by superposition of uniform phase thermal strains with local strains caused by piecewise uniform stress fields, which are in equilibrium with prescribed surface tractions. The procedure also allows evaluation of thermal stress fields in the aggregate in terms of known local fields caused by axisymmetric overall stresses. Finally, averages of local fields are found with the help of known mechanical stress and strain concentration factors.