Composites: Part A 32 (2000) 815±826

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General unit cells for micromechanical analyses of unidirectional

composites
S. Li*
Department of Mechanical Engineering, UMIST, P.O. Box 88, Sackville Street, Manchester M60 1QD, UK
Received 13 July 2000; revised 9 November 2000; accepted 4 December 2000

Abstract
Two typical idealised packing systems have been employed for unidirectionally ®bre reinforced composites, viz. square and hexagonal
ones. A systematic approach has been adopted and it involves the use of only the translational symmetry transformations. There are a number
of important advantages resulting from this. The unit cells so derived are capable of accommodating ®bres of irregular cross-sections and
imperfections asymmetrically distributed around ®bres such as microcracks and local debonding in the system, provided the regularity of the
packing and imperfections is present. Furthermore, all the unit cells established can be subjected to arbitrary combinations of macroscopic
stresses or strains unlike most available unit cells in the literature which can only deal with individual macroscopic stress or strain
components. Boundary conditions for these unit cells have been derived from appropriate considerations of the conditions of symmetry
transformations. Applications of macroscopic stresses or strains as the loads to the unit cells have been described in such a way that they can
be implemented in a straightforward manner and the effective properties of the composite can be evaluated following a standard procedure.
q 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Unit cell; B. Residual stress; C. Micro-mechanics

1. Introduction packed composites, employing a relevant packing is an

With rapidly growing computational modelling capabil-
ity, the micromechanical analysis of ®bre reinforced compo-
site materials has become an important means of
understanding the behaviour of these materials. An appro-
priately introduced representative unit cell is usually the
®rst step into such an analysis. Before a unit cell can be
introduced, a common practice is to assume an idealised
regular arrangement of the reinforcing ®bres in the matrix.
Occasionally, regularly packed ®bres are obtained in some
modern composites [7]. The loading conditions to the mate-
rial represented by the unit cell can be thermal, mechanical
or other types. The prescription of the loads to the unit cell is
normally expressed in terms of macroscopic ®eld quantities,
such as macroscopic stresses, strains and change in tempera-
ture. For unidirectionally ®bre reinforced composites as will
be concentrated on in this paper, frequently employed idea-
lised ®bre±matrix arrangements are square packing and
hexagonal packing. They have both been studied exten-
sively, e.g. for the square packing [1±3,12,16] and for the
hexagonal packing [5,6,12,13,16,18,20,21]. For regularly
* Tel.: 144-161-200-3892; fax: 144-161-200-3737.
E-mail address: shuguang.li@umist.ac.uk (S. Li).
1359-835X/01/$ - see front matter q 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 1359-835 X(00)00 182-2
obvious choice. However, for UD composites with
randomly distributed ®bres in the matrix over a cross-
section perpendicular to the ®bres, there are differences
between the two idealisations. An important characteristic
of such composites is their transverse isotropy, usually
achieved in a statistical sense. The superiority of the hexa-
gonal packing to the square packing is that it preserves this
characteristic while the effective properties obtained from
square packing show signi®cant transverse anisotropy as
will be shown later in the examples. The transverse isotropy
achieved through a hexagonal packing, however, is at a
price, i.e. the unit cell from it is substantially more sophis-
ticated than that from a square packing. In addition to the
square and hexagonal unit cells introduced through the two
packing systems, a cylindrical unit cell is often used in the
literature [8,15]. Because of its axisymmetric geometry,
analytical solution is possible in either an axisymmetric or
sinusoidal form in the circumferential direction. In many
cases, this model tends to produce good results for predic-
tions of the effective properties of a composite. However,
since packed cylinders do not ®ll the space fully, there is a
higher degree of discrepancy between the reality and idea-
lisation than that of the square and hexagonal cells. Hashin
and Rosen [8] included the gaps between cylinders but a
816 S. Li / Composites: Part A 32 (2000) 815±826

Nomenclature
a Radius of ®bres of a circular cross-section
A Area of a unit cell in the y±z plane
b Half of the distance between neighbouring ®bres
f Fibre volume fraction of the composite
Ex0 ; E .0y ; Ez0 Effective Young's moduli of the composite
Fx ; Fy ; Fz ; Fyz ; Fxz ; Fxy Concentrated forces applied to a unit cell to produce macroscopic stresses of the same subscripts
G0yz ; G0zx ; G0xy Effective shear moduli of the composite
H; H 0 Hexagonal unit cell and its image under translational symmetry transformations
j; k Numbers of periods in the y and z-directions by which the image is away from its origin, i.e. the unit cell, under
translational symmetry transformations
P; P 0 An arbitrary point in the unit cell and its image under translational symmetry transformations
DT Change in temperature
u; v; w Displacements in the generalised plane strain problem at an arbitrary point P
u 0 ; v 0 ; w 0 Image of u; v; w under a symmetry transformation
x; y; z Coordinates
a0x ; a0y ; a0z Effective thermal expansion coef®cients of the composite
v0xy ; v0yx ; v0yz ; ¼ Effective Poisson's ratio of the composite
e0 ˆ {e0x ; e0y ; e0z ; g0yz ; g0xz ; g0xy } Macroscopic strains
s 0 ˆ {s x0 ; s y0 ; s z0 ; t0yz ; t0xz ; t0xy } Macroscopic stresses

rather arti®cial displacement or stress ®eld must be assumed
before an analytical solution is possible. As a result, the
obtained distribution of stresses may differ from that from
the square or hexagonal cells signi®cantly, especially, in the
matrix. As this particular idealisation and the limitation of
its application is fairly well established, it will not be
addressed any further in this paper.
In any of the square and hexagonal packing systems, there
exist many geometric symmetries. In general, by using
different symmetries, different shapes of the unit cells can
be obtained, as illustrated by Li [13] in the case of hexago-
nal packing in unidirectionally ®bre reinforced composites.
Some of them may be relatively more ef®cient than the
others because more symmetries available in the system
have been made used of. In most existing unit cells in the
literature, because of the symmetries used, usually of a
re¯ectional or rotational type, the boundary conditions can
only be provided for speci®c loading conditions, e.g. for a
speci®c macroscopic stress or strain component. As a result,
some analyses are restricted to a certain type of load, such as
transverse tension, longitudinal shear [2,3]. Others have
dealt individually with every single component, or a limited
combination, of macroscopic stresses or strains [13]. In
other words, the macroscopic stresses or strains in an arbi-
trary combination are not allowed to be applied simulta-
neously as loads. While it is possible for linear problems
to employ a superposition law to obtain the combined
effects of such a macroscopic stress or strain state from
the results of all the individual cases involved, it may not
always be the preferred approach in every application, espe-
cially when any form of non-linearity is involved in the
problem, in which case, superposition law is not applicable
in general. The involvement of re¯ectional and rotational
symmetries when these unit cells are established is respon-
sible for not allowing the arbitrary application of loads
because under these types of symmetry transformation,
some stress components show symmetric characteristics
while others are antisymmetric. The same stress component
can be symmetric under one symmetry transformation but
antisymmetric under another. It is the intention of this paper
to avoid these types of symmetries and use will only be
made of the translational symmetries. Thus antisymmetry
will be ruled out and all the macroscopic stress components
applied as loads can be treated in exactly the same manner.
As a result, the unit cells introduced here are all expected to
be applicable to non-linear problems of any nature, material
and geometry.
Another advantage of the unit cells so derived is that they
are capable of accommodating irregularly shaped ®bre
cross-sections and even allowing the existence of imperfec-
tions, such as local debonding and microcracks, provided
the regularity of the ®bre±matrix arrangement and the
uniformity of the ®bre cross-section and imperfection distri-
bution are maintained throughout the material. In other
words, they allow ªregular irregularitiesº, i.e. arbitrary irre-
gularities within a unit cell such as irregular cross-section of
the reinforcing ®bres and local cracking and debonding but
all the cells over the cross-section of the composite perpen-
dicular to the ®bres are aligned showing a regular pattern
across the cross-section and the pattern extends throughout
the length of the ®bres. For the square and hexagonal pack-
ing, situations to be treated can be as general as shown in
Figs. 1 and 2, respectively. The imperfections extend along
the length of the ®bre. In practice, as long as the length of
 S. Li / Composites: Part A 32 (2000) 815±826
Fig. 1. A square packing and the square unit cell.
the imperfections is far greater than their in-plane dimen-
sion, the theory here should be applicable over most part in
the length direction away from the ends of the imperfec-
tions. Establishing unit cells for these two systems will be
the objective of this paper.
2. Voronoi tessellations and unit cells
For a unidirectionally ®bre reinforced composite, it is
normally reasonable to assume that the ®bres are in®-
nitely long and every cross-section of the composite
perpendicular to the ®bres is identical. The micromecha-
nical analysis of such a material can then be simpli®ed
to a two-dimensional problem in the plane of a cross-
section of the composite. In this plane, a mathematical
approach, the Voronoi tessellation [4], can be adopted
to tessellate the domain of interest in the plane with the
centres of the ®bres being the centres of Voronoi cells.
The cells obtained in this way are call Voronoi cells. A
Voronoi cell is bordered by segments perpendicular to
and passing the midpoint of the segments connecting
the centre of the cell and those of the neighbouring
cells. Such a tessellation scheme is obviously applicable
to unidirectional composites of random distribution of
®bres over the cross-section perpendicular to the ®bres.
A number of publications considered random ®bre±
matrix arrangement [6]. However, a complete character-
isation of the effects of random distribution of ®bres on
performance of composites is still unavailable hitherto.
An appropriate exploration in this direction is seen as
an important future development of the present study.
For regular packings, such as square and hexagonal
ones, square and hexagonal cells are obtained as a result
of such tessellations. In either case, all the Voronoi
cells are identical throughout the plane and any one
cell can be reproduced by another through a certain transla-
tional symmetry transformation. Thus, the Voronoi cells are
the natural choices as the unit cells for the two types of
packing.
817
Fig. 2. A hexagonal packing and the hexagonal unit cell.
2.1. Square packing
For a square packing as shown in Fig. 1, the unit cell S as
obtained from the Voronoi tessellation of this packing is
bounded by two pairs of sides
y ˆ ^b and z ˆ ^b …1†
where b is half of the spacing between ®bres as shown in
Fig. 1. The area of the unit cell is A ˆ 4b2 : When ®bres are
of a circular cross-section, assuming the radius of the ®bres
to be a, the ®bre volume fraction for this packing can be
given as
f ˆ pa2 =4b2 : …2†
To provide an idea of the compactness of the packing in this
case, the maximum theoretically achievable ®bre volume
fraction is f ˆ p=4 < 78:54% when a ˆ b:
2.2. Hexagonal packing
For a hexagonal packing as shown in Fig. 2, the boundary
of the hexagonal unit cell as obtained from the Voronoi
tessellation consists of three pairs of sides:
p
y ˆ ^b and ^ y 1 3z ˆ ^2b …3†
where b is half of the spacing between two neighbouring
®bres as shown in Fig. 2. The area of the unit cell is A ˆ
p
2 3b2 : Similarly to the case of square packing, if circular
®bres of radius a are considered, the ®bre volume fraction
for this packing can be given as
p
f ˆ pa2 =2 3b2 : …4†
The maximum theoretically achievable ®bre volume frac-
p
tion is f ˆ p=2 3 < 90:69% where a ˆ b: Obviously, with
a hexagonal packing, a composite can be made more
compact than with a square packing.
Comparing the two packing systems, it can be found that
the ®bre spacings in these systems are different at the same
®bre volume fracture. In addition, in a hexagonal packing,
any ®bre keeps equal distance from those next to it while in
818 S. Li / Composites: Part A 32 (2000) 815±826
a square packing the distances from a ®bre to the one next to it
in 0 or 908 direction and that in 458 direction are signi®cantly
different. This is responsible by the large transverse isotropy in
the hexagonal packing and transverse anisotropy in the square
packing, which will be shown later through examples.
3. Displacements ®elds under uniform macroscopic
strains
Only the translational symmetry transformations will be
employed to establish the unit cells in this paper. In this
section, the relations of displacements to the macroscopic
strains will be examined in the context of translational
symmetry transformations. As has been established in
[13], relative displacements of a point P in the unit cell to
another point P 0 in another cell (Figs. 1 and 2), which is the
image of P under a translational symmetry transformation,
are related precisely to the macroscopic strains as
u 0 2 u ˆ …y 0 2 y†g0xy 1 …z 0 2 z†g0xz
v 0 2 v ˆ …y 0 2 y†e0y 1 …z 0 2 z†g0yz …5†
w 0 2 w ˆ …z 0 2 z†e0z
where y and z are the coordinates of point P in the plane of a
cross-section perpendicular to the ®bres, u; v and w are the
displacements at this point in the unit cell, those quantities
with a prime are associated with the image point P 0 and
e0y ; e0z ; g0yz ; g0xz and g0xy are the macroscopic strains. Due to
the nature of the generalised plane strain problem as
described in [13], a constant longitudinal macroscopic strain
e0x is also allowed. It can be treated as a single independent
degree of freedom for the whole unit cell as it does not appear
in Eqs. (5). In the later sections of this paper, use will be made
of the above relative displacements to derive the displace-
ment boundary conditions for the unit cells to be developed.
In obtaining Eqs. (5), rigid body motions have been
constrained in the following manner. The origin O at x ˆ
y ˆ z ˆ 0 is constrained from displacements in three coor-
dinate directions. The rotations about the y and z-axes are
constrained by ®xing the rotation of the x-axis about these
axes. This can be achieved naturally if the x-axis is chosen
to be attached to the longitudinal direction of ®bres. Further-
more, the rotation about the x-axis is constrained by ®xing
the rotation of the y-axis about the x-axis. Expressed analy-
tically, these are
2v 2w 2w
uˆvˆwˆ ˆ ˆ ˆ0 at O: …6†
2x 2x 2y
Eqs. (5) do not provide information about the in situ micro-
scopic displacement ®elds inside the unit cell. However,
microscopic displacements in the heterogeneous unit cell
can always be considered as the sum of two parts. The
®rst part is identical to the macroscopic strains applied to
the composite. This would be the only part if the composite
was smeared. In a micromechanical analysis, this part is
often used to apply loads to the unit cell. The second part
is a perturbation on top of the ®rst part as a result of the
heterogeneity. The perturbation part forms a generalised
plane strain problem as described in Ref. [13]. A detailed
micromechanical analysis of a unit cell for a unidirection-
ally ®bre reinforced composite is to solve the generalised
plane strain problem so that the microscopic behaviour of
the unit cell can be predicted. Before a micromechanical
analysis as such can be performed on a unit cell, appropriate
boundary conditions for the unit cell need to be provided. In
the present paper, emphasis is placed on the latter, i.e. to
establish appropriate boundary conditions of the unit cells
for subsequent micromechanical analyses.
4. The unit cell for composites of a square packing
Square packing is relatively more frequently employed than
hexagonal packing in the literature. For composites of this
particular regular packing, the use of it is fully justi®ed. As
an idealisation for UD composites with random ®bre distribu-
tion, however, it lacks transverse isotropy which most such
UD composites possess owing to the random distribution of
®bres in the matrix over the cross-section perpendicular to
®bres. If the transverse isotropy is not the characteristic to be
preserved through the idealisation, advantage can be taken of
its simplicity by comparing with other packing systems.
Although this packing has been employed in a great many
publications, most of them have used re¯ectional symmetries
to minimise the size of the unit cell. As a result, loads in terms
of macroscopic stresses or strains can only be applied indivi-
dually and an arbitrary combination of the macroscopic stress
components is usually not allowed. A more important restric-
tion from the re¯ectional symmetries is that it rules out the
possibility of accommodating irregularities, such as ®bre
cross-section and imperfections. The unit cell to be established
in this section removes these restrictions. A general scenario
has been sketched in Fig. 1 in which irregular ®bre cross-
section and imperfections are illustrated schematically.
4.1. Translational symmetries and the square unit cell
As established in [13], the micromechanical analysis of a
unidirectionally ®bre reinforced composite can be expressed
as a two-dimensional generalised plane strain problem and
the y±z plane will be designated for this two-dimensional
problem hereafter. For a regular square packing as shown in
Fig. 1, there are two translational symmetries in that plane,
viz. translations in the y and z directions, respectively.
Under these symmetry transformations, any part of the
plane, e.g. area S 0 , can be considered as the image of shaded
area S. With these translational symmetry transformations,
any point P…y; z† in S can be mapped to its image P 0 …y 0 ; z 0 † in
S 0 and their coordinates are related as
…y 0 ; z 0 † ˆ …y 1 2jb; z 1 2kb† …7†
 S. Li / Composites: Part A 32 (2000) 815±826
where j; k ˆ 0; ^1; ^2; ¼ are the number of Voronoi cells
by which P 0 is away from P in the y and z directions,
respectively. From Eq. (7), it suggests that a translational
symmetry transformation can be de®ned by two integer
number j and k in this case. Use will be made of this to
refer to a particular transformation.
Stress and strain ®elds are distributed identically in S 0 and
S and, therefore, one needs only to consider those in the unit
cell. Substituting the coordinates in Eq. (7) into Eqs. (5), one
obtains
u 0 2 u ˆ 2jbg0xy 1 2kbg0xz
v 0 2 v ˆ 2jbe0y 1 2kbg0yz …8†
w 0 2 w ˆ 2kbe0z :
These equations will bring forward the boundary conditions
for this unit cell.
4.2. Displacement boundary conditions for the square
unit cell
A micromechanical analysis of the unit cell S requires
appropriate boundary conditions which should be
prescribed along all the sides of the unit cell. To obtain
boundary conditions along these sides, one is interested in
the translational symmetry transformations from the unit
cell to those cells immediately next to the unit cell. In
these cases, when P is chosen to be at the boundary of S
on one side, P 0 can be on the opposite side if one has chosen
an appropriate transformation. Then conditions (8) will lead
to relations between the displacements on a pair of the sides
of the unit cell. This applies to both pairs of the sides of the
unit cell, representing the interaction between neighbouring
cells. The translational symmetry transformations corre-
sponding to these two pairs of face are
… j ˆ 1; k ˆ 0† for y ˆ ^b
…9†
… j ˆ 0; k ˆ 1† for z ˆ ^b:
Substitute the values of j and k into Eqs. (8), the displace-
ment boundary conditions on the two pairs of sides can be
obtained in the form of equations as
…uuyˆb 2 uuyˆ2b †uz ˆ 2bg0xy
…vuyˆb 2 vuyˆ2b †uz ˆ 2be0y …10:1†
…wuyˆb 2 wuyˆ2b †uz ˆ 0
…uuzˆb 2 uuzˆ2b †uy ˆ 2bg0xz
…vuzˆb 2 vuzˆ2b †uy ˆ 2bg0yz …10:2†
…wuzˆb 2 wuzˆ2b †uy ˆ 2be0z :
The transformation for a pair of sides, e.g. y ˆ ^b; is
819
between the points sharing the common z coordinates as
indicated in Eqs. (10.1). The same notation applies to the
other pair of sides as in Eqs. (10.2).
It should be noted that, when these boundary conditions are
discretised, some of them at the corners are not fully indepen-
dent. This is because a corner is shared by two sides belonging
to different pairs. Although the inclusion of dependent equa-
tions in the boundary conditions does not introduce con¯icts in
a mathematical sense, some packages, e.g. the commercial
®nite element code, abaqus [9], may diagnose it as a source
of errors when this kind of equation boundary conditions is
imposed and the user is expected to exclude those dependent
ones from the boundary conditions. In order to obtain only
independent conditions at the corners, a corner should only
be considered as a part of one side of two intersecting ones.
Effectively, one can select one corner of the unit cell since all
the others are related to this by certain translational symme-
tries. Without loss of generality, corner 1 as shown in Fig. 1 can
be chosen.
Corners 2, 3 and 4 are associated with corner 1 by transla-
tional symmetry transformations … j ˆ 1; k ˆ 0†; … j ˆ 1; k ˆ
1† and … j ˆ 0; k ˆ 1†; respectively. Thus, the displacements at
corners 2, 3 and 4 are related to those at corner 1 as
2u2 1 u1 ˆ 2bg0xy
2v2 1 v1 ˆ 2be0y …11:1†
2w2 1 w1 ˆ 0
2u3 1 u1 ˆ 2bg0xy 1 2bg0xz
2v3 1 v1 ˆ 2be0y 1 2bg0yz …11:2†
2w3 1 w1 ˆ 2be0z
2u4 1 u1 ˆ 2bg0xz
2v4 1 v1 ˆ 2bg0yz …11:3†
2w4 1 w1 ˆ 2be0z
where the subscripts to the displacements indicate the dis-
placements at corresponding corners as numbered in Fig. 1.
It is straightforward to prove that the above equations are all
independent because each equation introduces a new unknown
into the system. It can also be proved that they are complete
because any further equations one can obtain can be derived
from those above. For instance, three additional equations can
be obtained by relating the displacements at corners 3 and 4
from the symmetry transformation … j ˆ 1; k ˆ 0†: They can
be found to be identical to the three equations obtained after u1,
v1 and w1 have been eliminated from Eqs. (11.2) and (11.3).
Boundary conditions obtained above are all in form of
equations relating the displacements on the opposite sides of
820 S. Li / Composites: Part A 32 (2000) 815±826
the unit cell. Conditions (10) should be imposed to the sides
of the unit cell excluding the corners and Eqs. (11) to the
corners of the unit cell. Along with an appropriate prescrip-
tion of the longitudinal macroscopic strain e0x and the
constraints for rigid body motions as given in Eq. (6), micro-
mechanical analyses on this unit cell for composites of this
particular ®bre matrix packing can be performed. Through
these conditions, six macroscopic strains are involved which
can be considered as six independent degrees of freedom.
They are equivalent to the key degrees of freedom as intro-
duced in Ref. [13] through which any combination of
macroscopic deformation can be prescribed.
Most available square unit cells in the literature assume
that sides keep straight after deformation [1,16,21]. The
sides of a square unit cell may remain straight only if re¯ec-
tional symmetries are present in the system. Otherwise, the
sides of the unit cell after deformation may become curved
and such an assumption may place restriction on the appli-
cation of the unit cell. Using the unit cell as described above,
no such restrictions are imposed.
It should be pointed out that, for a general description of the
deformation of the unit cell, displacement boundary condi-
tions as obtained above are not suf®cient to determine the
solutions yet. Traction boundary conditions are also required
for the completeness of the presentation of the problem as will
be provided in the next subsection. However, if a displace-
ment-based variational approach is employed, as is the case in
most commercial ®nite element codes, traction boundary
conditions are natural boundary conditions [19] which should
not be imposed but will be satis®ed automatically through
energy minimisation. Imposing traction boundary conditions
unnecessarily in such an approach may prevent the energy
function taking its minimum and, therefore, introduces errors
to the overall approximation.
4.3. Traction boundary conditions for the square unit cell
By mapping the stresses from the unit cell to an
appropriate neighbouring cell of it, through a translational
symmetry transformation as employed in the last subsection
for displacements, the tractions on one of a pair of sides of
the unit cell can be related to those on the other of the pair.
The tractions on a side of the unit cell can be expressed in
terms of a direct stress component perpendicular to the side
and the two shear components parallel to the side since the
side is perpendicular to one of the coordinate axes. From
the fact that the tractions on both sides of the border between
the unit cell and its neighbouring cell are actions and reac-
tions, the traction boundary conditions for the unit cell can
be obtained as
…s y uyˆb 2 s y uyˆ2b †uz ˆ 0
…txy uyˆb 2 txy uyˆ2b †uz ˆ 0 …12:1†
…tyz uyˆb 2 tyz uyˆ2b †uz ˆ 0
…s z uzˆb 2 s z uzˆ2b †uy ˆ 0
…txz uzˆb 2 txz uzˆ2b †uy ˆ 0 …12:2†
…tyz uzˆb 2 tyz uzˆ2b †uy ˆ 0:
The above traction boundary conditions are independent
of the displacement boundary conditions as obtained in the
previous subsection. They can be waived if a displacement
based variational approach has been adopted, such as most
®nite element methods. For a general analytical microme-
chanical analysis of the unit cell, they need to be imposed to
guarantee the uniqueness of the solution. However, when
such an approach is adopted, the dependence of some of the
boundary conditions on the others does not usually present
any problem and, therefore, ®nding a set of independent
traction boundary conditions at the corners of the unit
cell will be omitted here although it can be pursued in a
similar way to that employed for displacements in the last
subsection.
5. The unit cell for composites of a hexagonal packing
Like square packing, hexagonal packing is sometimes
seen actually in real composites [7]. As an idealisation for
composites with randomly distributed ®bres over the cross-
section perpendicular to the ®bres, it delivers the transver-
sely isotropic characteristics which a real composite
possesses in a statistical sense by having ®bres distributed
in matrix completely at random over the cross-section
perpendicular to the ®bres. The latter type of composites
includes the majority of UD composites in engineering
applications. A unit cell for this packing has been formu-
lated in Ref. [13] after a comprehensive examination of the
symmetries in the problem. Three types of symmetries have
been employed, translations in the y±z plane, re¯ections
about the y and z axes and a rotation in the y±z plane
about a special point. The boundary conditions for the
unit cell introduced there become speci®c to individual
macroscopic stresses or strains because of the applications
of the re¯ectional and the rotational symmetries. In this
section, an alternative unit cell will be formulated for the
same problem with the re¯ectional and rotational symme-
tries avoided so that it is free from the restrictions associated
with these symmetry transformations.
5.1. Translational symmetries and the hexagonal unit
cell
Limiting consideration to the translational symmetries,
one may ®nd that any periodical element cited in Ref.
[13] can be employed as a unit cell as shown in Fig. 3.
Among those periodical elements, the rectangular one R
and the diamond ones D1 and D2, tend to have complicated
partitions of the internal ®bre and matrix regions as the ®bre
 S. Li / Composites: Part A 32 (2000) 815±826
Fig. 3. Different periodical elements for hexagonal packing.
volume fraction increases, as discussed in Ref. [13]. The
rectangular ones R1 and R2 are twice as big as R, D1 and
D2 in area and hence will not be the most effective ones. An
optimum choice is the hexagonal periodical element H
which is the Voronoi cell for this particular packing as
described in Section 2, while the uni®cation of all these
shapes has been discussed by Li [13]. This unit cell will
be adopted for the subsequent development in this section.
The symmetries which will be used to obtain this hexa-
gonal unit cell are the translations along the y-axis and 6 -
axis which is 608 from the y-axis as shown in Fig. 2. With
these translational symmetries, a point P (y,z) in the unit cell
H is transformed to P 0 (y 0 ,z 0 ) in cell H 0 and their coordinates
are related as
p
…y 0 ; z 0 † ˆ …y 1 2jb 1 kb; z 1 3kb† …13†
where j; k ˆ 0; ^1; ^2; ¼ are the numbers of the Voronoi
cells by which H 0 is away from H in the y and 6 -directions,
respectively. This shows that a translational symmetry
transformation can be identi®ed by two integer number j
and k.
In a similar manner to that in the square packing, the
displacements at P 0 in the image cell H 0 and those at P in
the unit cell H are related as follows:
p when the corners of the unit cell are considered. From the
u 0 ˆ u ˆ …2j 1 k†bg0xy 1 3kbg0xz
p be classi®ed into two groups, corners 1, 3, 5 and 2, 4, 6, as
v 0 2 v ˆ …2j 1 k†be0y 1 3kbg0yz …
p symmetry transform the corners are transformed within
w0 2 w ˆ 3kbe0z :
Use will be made of these to obtain the displacement bound-
ary conditions for this unit cell.
5.2. Displacement boundary conditions for the
hexagonal unit cell
The boundary conditions for the unit cell H can be
821
obtained by considering three special translational symme-
try transformations to the unit cell so that the image cells
resulting from them are all next to the unit cell. In any of the
three transformations, the common side of H and H 0 is the
image of its opposite side of H. This brings forward the
required conditions relating the displacements on this pair
of sides. These three transformations can be expressed in
terms of j and k corresponding to the pairs of sides as
follows
…j ˆ 1; k ˆ 0† for y ˆ ^b
p
…j ˆ 0; k ˆ 1† for y 1 3z ˆ ^2b …15†
p
…j ˆ 1; k ˆ 21† for 2 y 1 3z ˆ ^2b:
Substituting these j and k values into Eqs. (14), one
obtains
…uuyˆb 2 uuyˆ2b uz ˆ 2bg0xy
…vuyˆb 2 vuyˆ2b †uz ˆ 2be0y …16:1†
…wuyˆb 2 wuyˆ2b †uz ˆ 0
p
…uu^y1p 3zˆ2b 2 uu^y1p 3zˆ22b †up 3y7z ˆ bg0xy ^ 3bg0xz
p
…vu^y1p 3zˆ2b 2 vu^y1p 3zˆ22b †up 3y7z ˆ be0y ^ 3bg0yz …16:2†
p
…wu^y1p 3zˆ2b 2 wu^y1p 3zˆ22b †up 3y7z ˆ ^ 3be0z :
By alternating the signs, two sets of equations can be
obtained from Eqs. (16.2) for the two pairs of sides.
The transformation for the pair of sides perpendicular
to the y-axis is between the points sharing the common
z coordinates and, for the other p pairs, they
p are between
the points sharing common 3y 2 z and 3y 1 z values,
respectively, as indicated in Eqs. (16).
Similar to the situation in the square unit cell, while the
boundary conditions (16) are applicable to all the sides of
the unit cell, they tend to result in many dependent equations
translational symmetries, the six corners of the unit cell can
14†
shown in Fig. 2. It is obvious that with any translational
a group but never from one group to another. Applying
the similar technique as in the previous section to each
of the two groups of the corners, a complete set of
independent conditions for the corners of the unit cell
can be obtained. Without loss of generality, one can
choose corner 1 from the ®rst group and 4 from the
second. Corners 3 and 5 are associated with corner 1
by translational symmetry transformations … j ˆ 1; k ˆ 0†
and … j ˆ 0; k ˆ 1†; respectively. Thus, the displacements
822 S. Li / Composites: Part A 32 (2000) 815±826

at these corners are related as cells identically. By the same translational symmetry trans-
formation argument as in the last subsection, the traction
2u3 1 u1 ˆ 2bg0xy boundary conditions expressed in terms of stresses can be
obtained, given the fact that on the opposite side of the unit
2v3 1 v1 ˆ 2be0y …17:1a† cell, the outward normals are opposite to each other and the
tractions on the side of the unit cell are the reactions of those
2w3 1 w1 ˆ 0 on the side of the neighbouring cell

p …s y uyˆb 2 s y uyˆ2b †uz ˆ 0

2u5 1 u1 ˆ bg0xy 1 3bg0xz
p …tyz uyˆb 2 tyz uyˆ2b †uz ˆ 0 …18:1†
2v5 1 v1 ˆ be0y 1 3bg0yz …17:1b†
p …txy uyˆb 2 txy uyˆ2b †uz ˆ 0
2w5 1 w1 ˆ 3be0z :
p p
Similarly, corners 2 and 6 are associated with corner 4 ‰… 3s y 1 tyz †uy1p 3zˆ2b 2 … 3s y 1 tyz †uy1p 3zˆ22b Šup 3y2z ˆ 0
by translational symmetry transformations … j ˆ 1; k ˆ 0†
p p
and … j ˆ 0; k ˆ 1†; respectively, leading to ‰… 3tyz 1 s z †uy1p 3zˆ2b 2 … 3tyz 1 s z †uy1p 3zˆ22b Šup 3y2z ˆ 0
p
u2 2 u4 ˆ bg0xy 1 3bg0xz p p
‰… 3txy 1 txz †uy1p 3zˆ2b 2 … 3txy 1 txz †uy1p 3zˆ22b Šup 3y2z ˆ 0
p …18:2†
v2 2 v4 ˆ be0y 1 3bg0yz …17:2a†
p p p
w2 2 w4 ˆ 3be0z ‰… 3s y 2 tyz †u2y1p 3zˆ2b 2 … 3s y 2 tyz †u2y1p 3zˆ22b Šup 3y1z ˆ 0

p p
‰… 3tyz 2 s z †u2y1p 3zˆ2b 2 … 3tyz 2 s z †u2y1p 3zˆ22b Šup 3y1z ˆ 0
u6 2 u4 ˆ 2bg0xy
p p
‰… 3txy 2 txz †u2y1p 3zˆ2b 2 … 3txy 2 txz †u2y1p 3zˆ22b Šup 3y1z ˆ 0:
v6 ˆ v4 ˆ 2be0y …17:2b†
…18:3†
w6 2 w4 ˆ 0: As has been explained in the previous section, the traction
boundary conditions need to be imposed only in approaches
In Eqs. (17) the subscripts to the displacements indicate
which solve the ®eld governing equations analytically. If a
the corners as numbered in Fig. 2. The independence
displacement based variational approach is adopted, these
and completeness of Eqs. (17) for the corners of the
boundary conditions will be satis®ed automatically in the
unit cell can be argued in exactly the same manner as
sense of energy minimisation.
in the previous section for the square unit cell.
To apply this unit cell in a micromechanical analysis,
boundary conditions (16) should be imposed to the relevant
6. Application of loads in terms of macroscopic stresses
sides of the unit cell excluding the corners while Eqs. (17)
and effective material properties
are to be imposed to the corners. Along with an appropriate
prescription of the longitudinal macroscopic strain e0x and
In all the previous sections for the two unit cells estab-
the constraints on rigid body motions as given in Eq. (6),
lished for unidirectionally ®bre reinforced composites, the
micromechanical analyses of composites of this type of ®bre
macroscopic strains are involved in the boundary conditions
matrix packing can be performed.
and they can be treated as independent degrees of freedom
At this stage, if the geometries of the ®bre cross-section
to the system as the key degrees of freedom introduced in
and the debonding possess the re¯ectional symmetries about
[13]. They can be prescribed to impose macroscopic strains
the y and z axes, use can be made of them to reduce the size
as the loads. Alternatively, concentrated forces (generalised
of the unit cell to a quarter of it. However, this is always at
as their energy conjugates are strains rather than displace-
the price of having to apply different boundary conditions
ments) can be applied to these key degrees of freedom. They
when dealing with different loading conditions. The unit cell
are equivalent to the key nodal forces in introduced in [13].
in Ref. [13] can be reproduced in this way.
Effectively, macroscopic stresses are applied to the unit cell.
The macroscopic stresses are related to these concentrated
5.3. Traction boundary conditions for the hexagonal unit forces, denoted as F with subscripts coincident with those of
cell the corresponding macroscopic stress components. From a
consideration of simple energy equivalence, i.e. the work
Stresses are mapped from the unit cell to its neighbouring done by any F over the corresponding macroscopic strain
 S. Li / Composites: Part A 32 (2000) 815±826 823

(generalised displacement) should be the same as that by the when

corresponding macroscopic stress over the same macro- Fy ˆ Fz ˆ Fyz ˆ Fzx ˆ Fxy ˆ DT ˆ 0
scopic strain in the volume of the unit cell, the relations
between these concentrated forces and the macroscopic Ey0 ˆ s y0 =e0y ˆ Fy =Ae0y
stresses can thus be obtained as when
s x0 ˆ Fx =A Fx ˆ Fz ˆ Fyz ˆ Fzx ˆ Fxy ˆ DT ˆ 0

s y0 ˆ Fy =A v0yx ˆ 2e0x =e0y

when
s z0 ˆ Fz =A
Fx ˆ Fz ˆ Fyz ˆ Fzx ˆ Fxy ˆ DT ˆ 0
(19)
t0yz ˆ Fyz =A
v0yz ˆ 2e0z =e0y

t0zx ˆ Fzx =A when

Fx ˆ Fz ˆ Fyz ˆ Fzx ˆ Fxy ˆ DT ˆ 0
t0xy ˆ Fxy =A
Ez0 ˆ s z0 =e0z ˆ Fz =Ae0z
where A is the area of the unit cell as given in Section 2 for
when
each of the two unit cells concerned and it has been assumed
that unit cells are all of a unit thickness in the x-direction. Fx ˆ Fy ˆ Fyz ˆ Fzx ˆ Fxy ˆ DT ˆ 0
Conventional approach to obtain effective strains and stres-
ses are based on some average processes [5]. While they v0zx ˆ 2e0x =e0z
introduce an additional cause for numerical errors, they
require extra efforts, especially when these processes are when
impossible to be implemented directly in the ®nite element Fx ˆ Fy ˆ Fyz ˆ Fzx ˆ Fxy ˆ DT ˆ 0
analysis as is the case in many commercial codes.
The load to the unit cell can also be thermal loading, i.e. a v0zy ˆ 2e0y =e0z
change in temperature, DT. Microscopic stresses and strains
due to thermal loading, in particular, the thermal residual when
stresses in the composites after a certain curing process, can
Fx ˆ Fy ˆ Fyz ˆ Fzx ˆ Fxy ˆ DT ˆ 0
be obtained through a micromechanical analysis of the unit
cell. Such information is of signi®cance since they are
closely associated with the early stage of development of G0yz ˆ t0yz =g0yz ˆ Fyz =Ag0yz
many damage modes. Also, from such an analysis, the effec- when
tive thermal expansion coef®cients of the composite can be
evaluated.With the macroscopic stresses being expressed in Fx ˆ Fy ˆ Fz ˆ Fzx ˆ Fxy ˆ DT ˆ 0
terms of forces applied to the unit cell, it is straightforward
to obtain all the effective elastic and thermoelastic proper- G0zx ˆ t0zx =g0zx ˆ Fzx =Ag0zx
ties of the material represented by the unit cell in terms of when
the macroscopic strains and the forces applied to it. For
orthotropic materials these effective material properties in Fx ˆ Fy ˆ Fz ˆ Fyz ˆ Fxy ˆ DT ˆ 0
conventional notations can be given as follows
G0xy ˆ t0xy =g0xy ˆ Fxy =Ag0xy
Ex0 ˆ s x0 =e0x ˆ Fx =Ae0x
when
when
Fx ˆ Fy ˆ Fz ˆ Fyz ˆ Fzx ˆ DT ˆ 0
Fy ˆ Fz ˆ Fyz ˆ Fzx ˆ Fxy ˆ DT ˆ 0

a0x ˆ e0x =DT

v0xy ˆ 2e0y =e0x
when
when
Fx ˆ Fy ˆ Fz ˆ Fyz ˆ Fzx ˆ Fxy ˆ 0
Fy ˆ Fz ˆ Fyz ˆ Fzx ˆ Fxy ˆ DT ˆ 0

v0xz ˆ 2e0z =e0x a0y ˆ e0y =DT

824 S. Li / Composites: Part A 32 (2000) 815±826

Table 1 or if there is a local debonding between the ®bre and

Material properties of the constituent ®bre and matrix
E (GPa) v a (10 26/8C) Volume fraction
Fibre 10 0.2 5 60%
Matrix 1 0.3 50 40%
when
Fx ˆ Fy ˆ Fz ˆ Fyz ˆ Fzx ˆ Fxy ˆ 0
a0z ˆ e0z =DT
when
Fx ˆ Fy ˆ Fz ˆ Fyz ˆ Fzx ˆ Fxy ˆ 0:
In obtaining each of the above properties, it is essential
that the corresponding loading state is observed. Although
for a given unit cell, from the material's symmetries, many
of the above listed properties are related, for instance, a
square/hexagonal unit cell with a ®bre of circular cross-
section and perfect bonding to the matrix shows orthotro-
pic/transversely isotropic characteristics, calculating them
individually and ®nding out whether the relationships
among these properties resulting from the symmetry consid-
erations are observed appropriately can serve as good
checks on the model, i.e. the formulation of the unit cell,
in particular, the correct application of all the boundary
conditions before the unit cell is employed in a more sophis-
ticated level of applications.
When irregular cross-sections of ®bres are involved,
the matrix at an arbitrary location, the symmetries
required for the material to show orthotropic or trans-
versely isotropic characteristics may not be available.
The macroscopic characteristics of a material like this
is described as monoclinic owing to the re¯ectional
symmetry about the y±z plane. For such a material,
additional material properties are required in order to
describe the behaviour of the material fully. Their de®-
nitions can be found in Ref. [11]. When desired, they
can be expressed in terms of the macroscopic strains
and the applied forces in the similar manner as in
Eqs. (20).
(20)
7. Examples and discussion
Applications of the unit cells established in this paper to
practical problems will be pursued as future developments.
Examples included here are to show the correctness of the
formulation for each unit cell. To this end, the simplest case
with circular ®bre and perfect bonding will be considered.
Both the ®bre and the matrix will be assumed to be isotropic
in order to make comparisons with the effective properties
predicted from Ref. [8]. However, these should not be
understood as the limitation of the unit cells established
and they can be used to obtain more information than effec-
tive properties, in particular, stress distribution around
®bres. It should also be pointed out that the bounds
predicted from the Hashin and Rosen's theory are the
bounds for cylindrical models, strictly speaking, and for a

(a) (b)

Fig. 4. Meshes for ®nite element analyses: (a) square unit cell; (b) hexagonal unit cell.
 S. Li / Composites: Part A 32 (2000) 815±826 825

Table 2
Macroscopic strains and effective material properties

Square unit cell (transverse Hexagonal unit cell Hashin and Rosen's theory
properties in 458 direction)
Lower bounds Upper bounds

Ex0 …GPa† 6.4033 6.4029 6.4029 6.4029

Ey0 ˆ Ez0 …GPa† 3.2951 GPa 2.8552 2.5381 3.0152
(2.5623 GPa)
G0yz …GPa† 0.91441 GPa 1.0824 0.91055 1.1780
(1.3398 GPa)
G0xy ˆ G0xz …GPa† 1.1948 1.1533 1.1495 1.1495
v0xy ˆ v0xz 0.23234 0.23337 0.2334 0.2334
v0yz 0.22974 0.31896 0.2798 0.3937
(0.40105)
a0x …1026 =8C† 8.1233 8.0815 8.0785 8.0785
a0y …1026 =8C† 23.195 23.804 23.848 23.848

realistic composite with either regular or irregular packing
they could be good approximations to the bounds but can
never be rigorous ones.
The material properties for the ®bre and matrix are included
in Table 1. The meshes for the square and hexagonal unit cells
are shown in Fig. 4 where a ®bre volume fraction of 60% is
assumed. The meshes used are all converged as was demon-
strated in Ref. [14]. Quadratic quadrilateral elements are used
for the matrix part while for the ®bre part quadratic triangular
elements are used for generating the mesh. These two types of
elements are fully compatible with each other. The effective
properties are obtained according to Eqs. (20) from ®nite
element analysis using abaqus [9] as shown in Table 2
along with those from Hashin and Rosen's theory. Agree-
ment is obvious while discrepancy is purely due to the
differences in the idealisations adopted, i.e. cylindrical
model, square and hexagonal packing.
The unit cells have also been validated in the following
ways. When the ®bre and matrix are given the same properties,
uniform stress/strain ®elds are obtained identical to those
prescribed macroscopic stresses and strains respectively.
The effective properties obtained are identical to those of the
®bre and matrix. In this case, however coarse or ®ne the
meshes are, ®nite elements produce the exact solution and
there is no rounding error. When ®bres are given different
properties from those of the matrix, still assuming circular
®bres and perfect bonding, validations can be made on the
square symmetry of the properties obtained, i.e.
Ey0 ˆ Ez0
G0xy ˆ G0xz
(21)
v0xy ˆ v0xz
a0y ˆ a0z
while the hexagonal unit cell should produce effective
properties showing transverse isotropy which has
G0yz ˆ Ey0 =2…1 1 v0yz † …22†
in addition to those given in Eqs. (21). These can easily be
shown from the results in Table 2. There is no error within the
signi®cant digits available from the ®nite element code.
It is interesting to notice the difference between the
results from the square and hexagonal unit cells. The trans-
verse Young's modulus obtained from the square unit cell
tends to be higher than that from the hexagonal unit cell.
This often put the former in a more favourable position than
the latter when comparisons are made with some experi-
mental results [10,17]. The strong transverse anisotropy in
the square packing has not been paid suf®cient attention to.
In fact, the effective transverse Young's and shear moduli
and Poisson's ratio in the 458 direction to the y and z axes in
a transversely square symmetric system can be expressed in
terms of those in the y and z directions as follows
0
E458 ˆ 4Ey0 G0yz =‰Ey0 1 2G0yz …1 2 v0yz †Š
G0458 ˆ Ey0 =2…1 1 v0yz † …23†
v0458 ˆ ‰Ey0 2 2G0yz …1 2 v0yz †Š=‰Ey0 1 2G0yz …1 2 v0yz †Š
where Ey0 ; G0yz and v0yz are the effective transverse Young's
and shear moduli and Poisson's ratio in the y and z direc-
tions. The longitudinal Young's and shear moduli, Poisson's
ratio and thermal expansion coef®cients remain constant
with respect to any rotation about the longitudinal axis.
The values obtained from Eqs. (23) differ from those in
the y and z directions by around 22% for the Young's modu-
lus, 47% for the shear modulus and 75% for the Poisson's
ratio as shown in Table 2 in brackets for this particular set of
constituent properties and ®bre volume fraction. The valid-
ity of the comparison with the effective properties from a
square packing could be questionable without referring to a
speci®ed direction. On the other hand, a hexagonal unit cell
produces a unique set of these effective transverse properties
owing to the transverse isotropy pertaining to the hexagonal
826 S. Li / Composites: Part A 32 (2000) 815±826
packing. They tend to appear somewhere close to the aver-
age of the values from the square unit cell in the y or z
direction and those in the 458 direction.
8. Concluding remarks
Unit cells for two popular regular microscopic packing
systems, viz. square and hexagonal, of unidirectionally ®bre
reinforced composites have been established in terms of their
geometric appearances after the formulation of mathematical
tessellations and boundary conditions for micromechanical
analyses. Only translational symmetries have been used. This
allows all these unit cells to accommodate irregularities in the
composites to some extent, described as ªregular irregulari-
tiesº, i.e. irregularities within a unit cell such as irregular
cross-section of the reinforcing ®bres and local cracking and
debonding but all the cells in the material are aligned showing a
regular pattern across any cross-section of the composite
perpendicular to the ®bres. It also permits arbitrary combina-
tions of macroscopic stresses or strains to be applied as the
loads to the unit cell without having to change to different
sets of boundary conditions. Owing to the introduction of
some extra degrees of freedom corresponding to the macro-
scopic strains, macroscopic stresses and strains can be applied
to the unit cell as loads in a straightforward manner. This
simpli®es greatly the procedure of processing the results
from a micromechanical analysis. The expressions of the effec-
tive material properties of the composite represented by the unit
cell are then obtained in terms of the loads applied to those extra
degrees of freedom and the nodal displacements at those extra
degrees of freedom which are available from the output of an
appropriate analysis of such a unit cell. The results from the
examples shown in this paper, while validating the unit cells
established, draw interesting comparisons between the two unit
cells representing the square and hexagonal packing systems.
Acknowledgements
Part of the work as in this paper is supported by EPSRC under
Grant No. GR/M57651. The author wishes to thank Professor
P.A. Smith for helpful discussions and invaluable comments.
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