Axial shear modulus of a fiber-reinforced composite with random fiber cross-sections
A study is made of the effective axial shear modulus of a fiber reinforced material with random fiber cross-sections so that the micromechanics is governed by stochastic differential equations. A coarse-graining procedure is adopted to investigate the macroscopic behavior of the material. This analysis leads to the formula for the effective axial shear modulusμ∗=μ1/{1−2c(μ2−μ1)/(μ2+μ1)},whereμ1andμ2are the shear modulus of the matrix and fibers respectively andcis the concentration of the fibers less that0.5. Forc>0.5, the fiber and matrix moduli are to be interchanged andcis to be replaced by1−c. The results of this study are compared with those of the theory of fibre reinforced materials. Finally, a numerical example is presented with graphical representation.