Micromechanical estimation of the effective wear of elastoplastic fiber-reinforced composites

A micromechanical approach recently elaborated for estimating the effective wear of linearly elastic heterogeneous materials is, in the present work, extended to elastoplastic fibrous composites consisting of an elastoplastic matrix reinforced by elastic unidirectional fibers. The local wear behavior of both the fiber and matrix phases is assumed to be governed by the well-known Archard law. It is shown that: (i) when the normal force supported by an elastoplastic fibrous composite is smaller than a critical value, the effective wear of the composite complies still with Archard law; (ii) once the normal force applied to the composite is larger than the critical value, the effective wear of the composite depends nonlinearly on the normal force so that Archard law is no longer valid. Using the composite cylinder assemblage (CCA) model and adopting the Tresca yield criterion for the matrix phase, the effective wear of elastoplastic fiber-reinforced composites is analytically and explicitly estimated while distinguishing different elastic and elastoplastic stages. These results contribute to developing a micromechanical approach of theoretical and practical interest for understanding and designing the tribological properties of nonlinear inhomogeneous materials.