Elastic properties of a tungsten-silver composite by reconstruction and computation

A three-dimensional model of a tungsten-silver composite is statistically constructed from an experimental two-dimensional image. The effective Young's modulus (E) of the model is computed in the temperature range 25-1060 degrees C using a finite element method. The results are in good agreement with experimental data. The reconstructed and overlapping sphere models are examples of bi-continuous (non-particulate) media. The computed moduli of the models are not generally in good agreement with the predictions of the self-consistent method. It has also been possible to evaluate the three-point variational bounds on the Young's moduli of the models using the results of Beran, Molyneux, Milton and Phan-Thien. The measured data were close to the upper bound if the properties of the two phases were similar (1/6 < E-1/E-2 < 6). (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.