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A variational formulation employing the minimum potential and complementary energy principles is used to derive a micromechanics-based nonlocal constitutive equation for random linear elastic composite materials, relating ensemble averages of stress and strain in the most general situation when mean fields vary spatially. All information contained in the energy principles is retained; we employ stress polarization trial fields utilizing one-point statistics so that the resulting nonlocal constitutive equation incorporates up through three-point statistics. The variational structure is developed first for arbitrary heterogeneous linear elastic materials, then for randomly inhomogeneous materials, then for general n -phase composite materials, and finally for two-phase composite materials, in which case explicit variational upper and lower bounds on the nonlocal effective modulus tensor operator are derived. For statistically uniform infinite-body composites, these bounds are determined even more explicitly in Fourier transform space. We evaluate these in detail in an example case: longitudinal shear of an aligned fiber or void composite. We determine the full permissible ranges of the terms involving two- and three-point statistics in these bounds, and thereby exhibit explicit results that encompass arbitrary isotropic in-plane phase distributions; we also develop a nonlocal “Milton parameter”, the variation of whose eigenvalues throughout the interval [0, 1] describes the full permissible range of the three-point term. Example plots of the new bounds show them to provide substantial improvement over the (two-point) Hashin–Shtrikman bounds on the nonlocal operator tensor, for all permissible values of the two- and three-point parameters. We next discuss further applications of the general nonlocal operator bounds: to any three-dimensional scalar transport problem e.g. conductivity, for which explicit results are given encompassing the full permissible ranges of the two- and three-point statistics terms for arbitrary three-dimensional isotropic phase distributions; and to general three-dimensional composites, where explicit results require future research. Finally, we show how the work just summarized, treating elastostatics, can be generalized to elastodynamics, first in general, then explicitly for the longitudinal shear example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is concerned with waves in n -component composites with random microgeometry. Such composites have been contemplated for decades but more recently have acquired prominence through the development of the so-called metamaterials. The account is a personal one and traces the development of variational formulations and the recognition of unconventional couplings in effective constitutive relations. It then addresses the inadequacy of treatments which consider only mean waves, beyond the "homogenization" or long-wavelength limit. The variational formulation can be employed to find approximations to the solution in all realizations, as well as for the mean waves. This has been illustrated by solving explicitly a problem of transmission and reflection at the interface between a composite and a homogeneous material. The solution has been published already, for the mean waves. A new development is the deduction of mean energy fluxes, which conform to conservation of energy. A striking phenomenon, beyond the reach of homogenization theory, is that a substantial fraction of the incident energy is reflected incoherently as frequency tends to zero, even when the homogeneous half-space and composite are acoustically matched. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper the mechanical behaviour of finite random heterogeneous bodies is considered. The analysis of non-local interactions between heterogeneities in microscopically heterogeneous materials is necessary when the spatial variation of the load or the dimensions of the body, relative to the scale of the microstructure, cannot be ignored. Microstructures can be periodic but generically they are random. In the first case, an exact calculation can be performed but in the second case recourse has to be made either to simulation or to some scheme of approximation. One such scheme is based on a stochastic variational principle. The novelty of the present work is that a stochastic variational principle is projected directly onto a finite-element basis so that all subsequent analysis is performed within a finite-element framework. The proposed formulation provides expressions for the local stress and strain fields in any realization of the medium, from which expressions for statistically-averaged quantities can be derived. Then an approximation of Hashin–Shtrikman type is developed, which generates a FE-based numerical procedure able to take account of interactions between random inclusions and boundary layer effects in finite composite structures. Finally, two examples are presented, namely a cylinder with square cross-section subjected to mixed boundary conditions of different types on different faces and a rectangular body containing a centre crack. The results show that in the vicinity of the boundary or close to the crack tip, the strain and the stress in the matrix and in the inclusions differ considerably from those obtained by the formal application of conventional homogenization. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]