An iterative FE-BE method and rectangular cell model for effective elastic properties of doubly periodic anisotropic inclusion composites

Based on the rectangular cell model cut from doubly periodic anisotropic inclusion medium, this paper presents the effective elastic properties of the mentioned problems by an iterative FE-BE coupling method. This method is easy to be numerically implemented and especially suitable for the analysis of anisotropic inclusions embedded in an isotropic matrix, allows a wide range of microgeometries of the composite and determination of the complete set of effective elastic properties. Besides, the adopted method also avoids using the fundamental solutions of anisotropic materials and overcomes the difficulties of solving the inclusions with irregular shapes in the BEM. In calculation, the anisotropic inclusion is discretized into finite elements, whereas the boundary of the rectangular cell and the inclusion-matrix interface are meshed into a series of boundary elements. Some numerical examples are used to validate the applicability and reliability of the present scheme. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.