Abstract
The effects of fiber shape and fiber arrangement on the overall inelastic behavior of unidirectional metal matrix composites in the presence of interfacial and fiber damage are investigated using a recently extended version of the generalized method of cells (Aboudi, 1993). This version accommodates the possibility of an imperfect interfacial bond between any two adjacent subcells within the repeating unit cell used to model composites with periodic microstructures. The imperfect interfacial bond is characterized by a flexible interface model and the inelastic behavior of the matrix is modeled using the Bodner-Partom viscoplasticity theory. Numerical results indicate a strong dependence of the composite's response on both fiber geometry and fiber spacing for transverse normal and axial shear loading. The effects of fiber architecture are either enhanced or suppressed by the presence of imperfect fiber/matrix bond and partial diametral splits in fibers with cores such as the silicon carbide fiber, depending on the applied loading.