%0 Journal Article %A Trovalusci, Patrizia %A Sansalone, V. %D 2007 %I Begell House %N 2 %P 141-152 %R 10.1615/IntJMultCompEng.v5.i2.70 %T A Numerical Investigation of Structure-Property Relations in Fiber Composite Materials %U https://www.dl.begellhouse.com/journals/61fd1b191cf7e96f,25cc62a120ff4480,3491c4b70775eee9.html %V 5 %X A multifield continuous model is adopted to investigate the mechanical behavior of heterogeneous materials made of short, stiff, and tough fibers embedded in a more deformable matrix. This continuum accounts for the presence of internal structure by means of nonstandard field descriptors. The constitutive relations, obtained by a multiscale approach linking the material description at different scales, depend on the geometry and the arrangement of the internal phases and include internal scale parameters, which allow taking into account size effects. A multiscale finite element technique has been used for obtaining the numerical solution of the multifield and the corresponding Cauchy model. The numerical results obtained on a sample fiber-reinforced composite show the effectiveness of the former in pointing out the influence of the size, shape, and orientation of the fibers on the gross behavior of the material. %8 2007-08-28