An Elastic-Plastic Stress Analysis of Metal-Matrix Composite Beam Loaded Transversely

An elastic-plastic stress analysis has been carried out in a stainless steel fiber reinforced aluminum matrix composite beam. The beam is loaded by a single force at its free end. The composite material is assumed perfectly plastic to simplify the investigation. An exact solution is given for the elastic and elastic-plastic regions. Orientation angles of the fiber are chosen as 0°, 30°, 45°, 60° and 90°. The plastic zone expands at the upper side of the beam more than at the lower side for 30°, 45° and 60° orientation angles. Residual stress components of σx and τxy are found in the sections of the beam. The plastic collapse occurs at the different points for the beam of 0°, 30°, 45°, 60° and 90° orientation angles.