A statistical descriptor based volume-integral micromechanics model of heterogeneous material with arbitrary inclusion shape

A continuing challenge in computational materials design is developing a model to link the microstructure of a material to its material properties in both an accurate and computationally efficient manner. In this paper, such a model is developed which uses image-based data from characterization studies combined with a newly developed self-consistent volume-integral micromechanics model (SVIM) for linear elastic material. It is observed that SVIM is able to capture the effective stress/strain distribution inside the inclusion, as well as effects of volume fraction and nearest inclusion distance on the effective properties of heterogeneous material. More importantly, SVIM can be applied to inclusions with arbitrary shape through discretizing the inclusion domain. For both 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional problems with circular and spherical inhomogeneities, SVIM’s capability of predicting effective elastic properties is validated against experiments and direct numerical simulations using the finite element method. Finally, the effect of inclusion shape is predicted by SVIM.