Micromechanical Approach of the Coated Inclusion Problem and Applications to Composite Materials

A micromechanical model using simultaneously Green’s function techniques and interfacial operators is proposed in order to solve the elastic inhomogeneous coated inclusion problem. For a composite material made of a non dilute concentration of coated inclusions and a homogeneous matrix, the interactions between the reinforcements are solved by a self-consistent scheme. The theoretical results for a composite of hollow spheres of glass in a polyester matrix are in good agreement with experimental measurements of Huang and Gibson.