On nonlinear behavior in brittle heterogeneous materials

2006

Abstract Many modern fiber-reinforced composite materials are ‘brittle’, in the sense that their strain to failure under quasi-static loading is typically of the order of 1% when loaded in directions generally controlled by fiber fracture, and the energy-to-failure under the quasi-static loading curve is typically small. For this reason, analysis of these materials is typically done under assumptions of linear elasticity, usually for homogeneous materials or material layers in a laminate. This is in contrast to ‘ductile’ metal behavior in which elastic–plastic behavior is widely discussed. What is most remarkable is the fact that for long-term behavior, the situation is nearly reversed in m…