Effect of particle clustering on the strengthening versus damage rivalry in particulate reinforced elastic plastic materials: A 3-D analysis from a self-consistent modelling

The elasto-plastic behaviour and damage of materials reinforced with uniform or clustered distributions of particles has been previously investigated, for uniaxial loading, in a 1-D analysis restricted to the loading direction. Computational comparisons were performed in making use of a self-consistent modelling which assumed material elastic isotropy and incompressibility, as well as a spherical particle shape. Attention was paid to the effect …