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In this work, the elasto-plastic material properties of particle reinforced composites are evaluated using three-dimensional finite element approach. Effective properties of the composite are evaluated using representative volume element and numerical homogenization for kinematic and static boundary conditions. A computer program is developed to generate non-overlapping spherical particles of arbitrary size in an representative volume element. The numerical modeling of representative volume element containing the randomly distributed spherical particles of different sizes is performed by finite element method. Convergence study is performed to determine the suitable size of representative volume element. Homogenization is carried out for two cases i.e. matrix with soft and hard particles for reinforcement volume fraction up to 25%. A numerical comparison of 2-D and 3-D results is presented in terms of material behavior for matrix with soft particles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interpenetrating phase composites can be defined as multiphase materials in which each phase is three-dimensionally interconnected throughout the structure. The unique geometry of the reinforcement offers improved combination of mechanical and physical properties. Over the years, a lot of efforts have been put to study these composites experimentally. However, due to the complexity in microstructure and randomness in behaviour of interpenetrating phase composite, the modelling of these composites has not been sufficiently studied so far. Therefore, in this study, two models, namely, unit cell and self-consistent models have been presented to find the elastic properties of interpenetrating phase composites. All influencing parameters such as volume fraction and random geometry are duly incorporated in these models. These models are analysed by a mesh-free method known as element-free Galerkin method. The effective properties of these composites are calculated by an effective medium approximation approach. The real microstructure of interpenetrating phase composites is partially interpenetrating and partially particulate in nature; hence, a control parameter has been included in the model to simulate this behaviour. The main feature of the proposed unit cell model is that it is easy to implement and less time consuming as compared to three-dimensional existing model and characterises all the governing features of interpenetrating phase composite microstructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]