On sensitivity analysis of effective elastic moduli for fibre-reinforced composites.

The idea of the paper is to present theoretical aspects and finite element method implementation of the sensitivity analysis in homogenization of linear elastic fibre composites by the use of effective modules homogenization approach. The deterministic sensitivity approach to the homogenization problem is presented in a general form for n-component composite and is illustrated in the example of two-dimensional fibre-reinforced periodic composite structure. The results of sensitivity analysis shown in the paper confirm the usefulness of the homogenization method to computational analysis of composite materials and may be successfully applied to numerical optimization of engineering composites and to their shape sensitivity studies. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]