A Multicontinuum Approach to Structural Analysis of Linear Viscoelastic Composite Materials

Abstract

A “multicontinuum” approach to structural analyses of composites is described. A continuum field is defined to represent each constituent material along with the traditional continuum field associated with the composite. Finite element micromechanics is used to establish relationships between composite and constituent field variables. These relationships uncouple the micromechanics from structural solutions and render an efficient means of extracting constituent information during the course of a finite element structural analysis. Equations are developed for the case of a linear elastic reinforcing material embedded in a linear viscoelastic matrix and verified by comparison with results of finite element micromechanics.