Abstract
When a particle/metal matrix composite is subjected to a large deformation such as plastic deformation, some particles in the composite are expected to be damaged. In this paper, the effect of the damaged particles on the stiffness of the composite has been studied theoretically. We consider that there exist three cases of damage modes associated with particles : the shattering of particles producing complete voids, cracking within particles and debonding at the interface between the matrix and particles. The analytical technique used in our study is a combination of Eshelby's equivalent inclusion method and Mori-Tanaka's back stress analysis. Numerical results are presented to demonstrate the effect of the fraction of damaged particles on the Young's modulus of the Al2O3 particle/6061 Al composite. It was found from the theoretical study that the shattering mode induces the largest reduction in the composite Young's modulus.
