Asymptotic behaviour of a cylindrical elastic structure periodically reinforced along identical fibers

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the asymptotic behavior of a cylindrical elastic structure reinforced with periodically distributed fibers as the fiber size diminishes, identifying critical sizes and using epi-convergence techniques.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed asymptotic analysis of reinforced elastic structures, highlighting critical fiber sizes and the relationship with material properties, using epi-convergence methods.

Findings

Identification of a critical fiber size for reinforcement effectiveness.

Derivation of asymptotic models as fiber size tends to zero.

Application of epi-convergence to elastic structure analysis.

Abstract

We describe the asymptotic behaviour of a cylindrical elastic body, reinforced along identical $\epsilon$-periodically distributed fibers of size $r_{\epsilon}$, with $0 < r_{\epsilon} < \epsilon$, filled in with some different elastic material, when this small parameter $\epsilon$ goes to 0. The case of small deformations and small strains is considered. We exhibit a critical size of the fibers and a critical link between the radius of the fibers and the size of the Lam\'e coefficients of the reinforcing elastic material. Epi-convergence arguments are used in order to prove this asymptotic behaviour. The proof is essentially based on the construction of appropriate test-functions.