Material deformation microstructure-properties relationship

The relationship between the structure of the disordered heterogeneous material (e.g., composite and porous media) and the effective physical properties (e.g., elastic moduli, thermal expansion coefficient, and failure characteristics) can also be addressed by the concept of the reconstructed porous/multiphase media (Torquato, 2000). For example, it is of great practical interest to understand how spatial variability in the microstructure of composites affects the failure characteristics of heterogeneous materials. The determination of the deformation under the stress of the porous material is important in porous packing of beds, mechanical properties of membranes (where the pressure applied in membrane separations is often large), mechanical properties of foams and gels, etc. Let us restrict our discussion to equilibrium mechanical properties in static deformations, e.g., effective Young s modulus and Poisson s ratio. The calculation of the impact resistance and other dynamic mechanical properties can be addressed by discrete element models (Thornton et al., 1999, 2004). 

---