Elastic moduli of brittle matrix composites with interfacial debonding

Elastic moduli of brittle matrix composites with uni-symmetric and doubly-symmetric intcrfacial debonding are studied. † Traction continuity and displacement continuity conditions are imposed along the boundary of adjacent representative elements. With careful consideration of symmetric and skew-symmetric conditions in the cell, the uni-symmetric and doubly-symmetric debonding cases can be modelled by a half cell or a quarter cell problem, respectively. The RVE boundaries, in general, do not remain straight for the composite under loading. Parametric studies assessing the effect of the debonding angle, the shear moduli ratios in the constituents and the fiber volume fractions on the composite shear moduli are also presented through finite element analyses. Comparison of the shear moduli between the current compatible displacement field and the linear straight boundary displacements of the RVE is addressed.