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E. Weissenbek, H. J. Böhm, F. G. Rammerstorfer:
"Micromechanical Investigations of Arrangement Effects in Particle Reinforced Metal Matrix Composites";
Computational Materials Science, 3 (1994), 2; 263 - 278.

The influence of inclusion arrangements and shapes on the mechanical and thermomechanical behavior predicted by unit cell descriptions of particle reinforced metal matrix cmposites (SiC in commercial purity aluminum) is investigated. Three-dimensional cubic geometries, axisymmetric models and plane geometries are compared, and all periodic arrangements of inclusions are shown to display at least some degree of three-dimensional anisotropy under mechanical loading. Deviations from isotropy are more marked for simple cubic than for body centered and face centered cubic arrangements in both the elastic and inelastic ranges, and the overall linear and nonlinear responses predicted by axisymmetric models are found to be in good agreement with the three-dimensional cubic descriptions. The thermal expansion behavior of cubic models is isotropic provided cube-shaped or spherical inclusions are used. However, both axisymmetric descriptions and cylindrical inclusions in three-dimensional models give rise to noticeable anisotropies in the predicted overall response to a thermal load.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0927-0256(94)90141-4