Seminars

Existing theories of fiber-reinforced elastic solids are based on the idea that the embedded fibers confer anisotropy to the homogenized composite, but do not otherwise participate in the mechanics; that is, the intrinsic flexural and and torsional resistance of the fibers is invariably neglected. Here we introduce a nonlinear model that accommodates these effects explicitly. The theory is a special case of the Cosserat theory of elasticity. We discuss the basic framework, associated non-standard material symmetry considerations, and present solutions to some simple illustrative problems.