Micromechanical modeling of fiber fragmentation in single fiber composite specimens

A micromechanical method was developed to model the fiber fragmentation test using single fiber composite specimens (SFC). The SFC specimen consisted of a single brittle silicon carbide fiber embedded in a ductile aluminum matrix. A finite element method was used to provide numerical solutions for the state of stress and the fiber length at a given applied effective strain for each SFC, and to allow a better understanding of the interaction of each component. The numerical solutions were used to construct effective stress-strain curves showing the constitutive behavior and effective strain-fiber fragment length plots of each SFC modeled.