Thermo-mechanical response of heterogeneous materials with randomly distributed transforming particles

Abstract

A hybrid finite element method is developed for thermo-mechanical response analysis of heterogeneous material where inclusions with stress-induced transforming property and (or) distinct thermal expansion coefficients are randomly distributed. The residual stresses due to thermal expansion coefficient mismatch between matrix and inclusions are calculated, and the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method is verified by comparing the obtained results with those by the theoretical elastic solution and conventional finite element method. The developed method is applied to discrete modeling of transformation toughening. It is shown that the predictions based on the discrete modeling match those by a continuum type approach if particles are assumed to transform uniformly within the transformation zone. When particles are assumed to transform linearly within the transformation zone, the discrete modeling predicts results closer to experimental results.