Composites Science and Technology 61 (2001) 1359–1366

www.elsevier.com/locate/compscitech

Stress-transfer analysis for fibre/matrix interfaces in

short-fibre-reinforced composites
Xiaoyu Jiang*, Qing Gao
Department of Applied Mechanics and Engineering, Southwestern Jiaotong University, Chengdu, 610031, PR China

Received 22 May 2000; accepted 7 March 2001

Abstract
In this paper, a simple theory and a special frictional contact element method are used to analyse the stress transfer from matrix
to fibre in metal-matrix composites consisting of an aluminium alloy reinforced with short carbon fibres. In the simple theory from
shear-lag theory, the influence of stress transfer from matrix to fibre through the end interface between fibre and matrix is taken into
account. In the special frictional contact element method, the shear strength and the tensile strength of the fibre/matrix interface are
used to judge the slipping or debonding of the interface. The interfacial normal and shear stresses are obtained on the axial interface
and the end interface. The tensile stresses at some points on the axial interface and the end interface may cause debonding of the
interface and prevent the interface from transfering stress from matrix to fibre. It is found that the end interface between short fibre
and matrix is easy to debond in the loading process. After the debonding of the end interface, the stress transfer from matrix to fibre
depends on the shear stress on the axial interface only. The influence of stress transfer from the matrix through the end interface is
important only for fibres of very short length. The length of a short fibre below which the influence of stress transfer from the end
interface is important is found to be l=d
3 in the calculation for short-carbon-fibre-reinforced aluminium alloy. In the case where
the tensile strength of the axial interface is not small, the contribution of a short fibre to the strength of the composite from the
calculation in the paper may be approximately equal to that from shear-lag theory for short fibre with l=d > 3. The tensile strength
of fibre/matrix interface has the same importance as the shear strength of the interface in short-fibre-reinforced composites. # 2001
Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: A. Short fibre composites; A. Metal-matrix composites; B. Interface; C. Stress transfer; Frictional contact element

1. Introduction fibre model, the properties of fibre/matrix interfaces and

The efficiency of stress transfer from matrix to fibre is
of fundamental importance in determining the mechan-
ical properties of short-fibre-reinforced composite materi-
als. The stress transfers depend on the micro-mechanical
characteristics of fibre/matrix interfaces. The stress trans-
fer from the matrix through the end interface of a short
fibre becomes important in short-fibre-reinforced compo-
sites. Chon and Sun [1] studied the stress transfer between
a single fibre and the surrounding matrix by shear-lag
theory. For fibre/matrix interfaces of composite materi-
als, the friction on fibre/matrix interfaces may be
important for stress transfer. The fibre/matrix interfaces
in composite materials may be considered as a frictional
contact problem between fibre and matrix. In a single-
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: xiaoyujiang@263.net (X. Jiang).
0266-3538/01/$ - see front matter # 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S0266-3538(01)00034-3
the friction on the interfaces after the debonding of fibre
and matrix were analyzed by Zhou [2] using shear-lag
theory and by Povirk [3] using the finite-element
method. The slipping of fibre/matrix interfaces was
considered for ceramic–matrix composites by Sorensen
et al. [4] who also used the finite-element method. In our
previous research, the microstructure of a short-fibre-
reinforced composite and the macroscopic strength of the
composite were obtained [5], but the short-fibre/matrix
interface was considered to be perfectly bonded. Shear-
lag theory was used to calculate the contribution of short
fibres to the strength of the composite and the stress
transfer through the end interface of the short fibre was
not taken into account.
The stress transfer from the elastic matrix to the single
short fibre is simulated by the special contact-element
method in the paper. The stress transfer from the matrix
through the end interface of the short fibre is considered.
1360 X. Jiang, Q. Gao / Composites Science and Technology 61 (2001) 1359–1366
The fibre/matrix interfacial normal stress and the inter-
facial shear stress are obtained for composite materials
used in different temperatures. Different short fibre
length to diameter ratios (aspect ratios) are used to
consider the influence of the short-fibre length on stress
transfer. The debonding, slipping and perfectly adhesion
of fibre/matrix interfaces are described in the analysis.
2. Simple theory considering the stress transfer through
the end interface of short fibre
The shear-lag theory is used to calculate the strength
contribution, fiberðiÞ , of a well-bonded single short fibre
to the macroscopic strengths of short-fibre-reinforced
composite materials [5]. If the stress transfer from the
matrix through the end interface of the short fibre is not
considered, the following formula may be obtained:
lðiÞ
fibreðiÞ ¼ cosðiÞ  my  VfibreðiÞ lðiÞ < lcðiÞ
dðiÞ
 
lcðiÞ
fibreðiÞ ¼ cosðiÞ  fu 1   VfibreðiÞ
2lðiÞ

ð2Þ
lðiÞ 5lcðiÞ
in which the critical fibre length may be calculated as:
fu
lcðiÞ ¼  d ði Þ
2my
in which lðiÞ and dðiÞ are the length and diameter,
respectively. ðiÞ is the orientation of a short fibre (i). my
is the shear yield strength of the matrix. fu is the ultimate
tensile strength of the short fibres. VfibreðiÞ is the fibre
volume fraction of a single fibre (i), which may be
rewritten as:
VfibreðiÞ ¼ Vf ðiÞ =Vtotal
where Vf ðiÞ is the volume of a single fibre (i), Vtotal is the
total volume of all fibres.
For short-fibre-reinforced composite materials the
stress transfer from the matrix through the end interface
of the short fibre should be taken into account. From
the stress distribution on the end interface of a short
fibre, shown in the next section in this paper, only the
normal stress on the end interface is important to the
strength contribution of short fibre. If the same assump-
tion of shear-lag theory is used, the following formula
may be deduced:
 
lðiÞ
fibreðiÞ ¼ cosðiÞ  my þ mu  VfibreðiÞ lðiÞ < lcðiÞ
d ði Þ
   
lcðiÞ lcðiÞ
fibreðiÞ ¼ cosðiÞ  fu 1  þ mu  VfibreðiÞ
2lðiÞ 2lðiÞ


lðiÞ 5lcðiÞ
ð6Þ
in which
fu  mu
lcðiÞ ¼  dðiÞ ð7Þ
2my
From the formula in Eqs. (1) and (2), as well as Eqs.
(5) and (6), the contribution of a single short fibre to the
strength of a composite with a perfectly bonded fibre/
matrix interface may be obtained. When the short fibre
is shorter than its critical length, from Eqs. (5) and (6) it
may be found that the ratio of stress transfer from
matrix through the end interface of short fibre to all of
the stress transfer from matrix is higher. The shorter the

short fibre is, the higher the ratio is. It means that the
ð1Þ
stress transfer through the end interface of short fibre
becomes important when the short fibre is very short.
3. Special contact element model of stress transfer of
single short fibre
The fibre/matrix interfaces of composite materials
may be considered as a frictional contact problem
ð3Þ between fibre and matrix [1–4]. In order to perfectly
analyse the micro-mechanical characteristics of fibre/
matrix interfaces and widely use the contact-element
method, the contact-element method is introduced and
improved in connection with the fibre/matrix interfaces
of composite materials. The contact element is an ima-
ginary element. This kind of element is of some mechan-
ical characteristics. It cannot restrict the free motion of
bodies in the case of non-contact status. In the contact
areas the stiffness of contact element becomes large
ð4Þ enough to prevent the penetrating of contact bodies. The
changes of moduli of the contact element may reflect dif-
ferent contact status [6–11].
In order to study the stress transfer from the matrix to
short fibres, the model used is that of a single short fibre
in an elastic matrix [12,13]. A quarter of the shape and
size of the real model is shown in Fig.1 because of sym-
metry. The fibre, matrix and fibre/matrix interface are
discrete as in Fig.1. The fibre/matrix interface is taken
as 8-node three-dimensional contact elements. The
other elements are ordinary finite elements. The loading
is applied on the end of the matrix in direction X.
For the fibre/matrix interfaces of real composite mate-
rials, there are some adhesive strengths because of the use


of coupling materials in cured processes. Especially for
metal-matrix composites there may be some osmosis
ð5Þ and reaction on the fibre/matrix interfaces because of
 X. Jiang, Q. Gao / Composites Science and Technology 61 (2001) 1359–1366 1361

3.3. Yielding slipping of the interface part

The shear stress of contact element being larger than

the resultant of the frictional force and the interfacial
shear strength, part of the fibre/matrix interface will get
into the slip state because of the shear stress.

Zg 40 when N < 0 and j j5

jN j þ s ð11Þ
Fig. 1. Model of short fibre in matrix.

Zg 40 when Ns > N 50 and j j5s ð12Þ

the high cured temperature. In an ordinary case there
are interfacial normal tensile strength Ns and interfacial
shear strength s , and Ns 6¼ 0, s 6¼ 0. Because of the
adhesive strength of fibre/matrix interface, the contact
of the fibre/matrix interface is not a contact problem in
a common sense. The ordinary contact element method
should have some changes to use in the fibre/matrix
jN j þ s when N < 0
interfaces.
The fibre/matrix interface is perfectly bonded before
the fibre is subjected to loading. The fibre/matrix inter-
face is discrete as many contact elements. The contact
status of the fibre/matrix interface will be changed in the
loading process to describe the real status of interface. It
is considered that the interface is in pure frictional con-
tact status after the debonding of the fibre/matrix inter-
face has taken place. The transfers of shear stress on the
fibre/matrix interface only depend on the force of fric-
tion.
After the contact elements get into slip status, the
slipping between fibre and matrix will happen. The
shear stress transfer from matrix to short fibre may be
written as:
j j ¼ 
ð13Þ
j j ¼ s when N 50
4. Results and discussion
Metal-matrix composites of short-carbon-fibre-rein-
forced aluminium alloy is used in the paper. The para-
meters of the short carbon fibre are: diameter 7 mm,
elastic modulus Ef ¼ 228:94 GPa, Poisson’s ratio
f ¼ 0:28, thermal expansion coefficient in axial direc-
tion of fibre
fz ¼ 0:7106 1= C, in radius direction

fr ¼ 8106 = C, the ultimate tensile strength of short
3.1. Debonding of the interface part fibres fu ¼ 2000 MPa; The matrix is an aluminium
alloy. Its parameters are: Em ¼ 73 GPa, ¼ 0:33,
In the case of normal stress of a contact element being
m ¼ 23106 = C, the ultimate tensile strength of the
tensile stress, i.e. N 50, there is: the fibre/matrix inter-
face will debond when the tensile stresses of contact
elements are larger than the interfacial normal tensile
strength Ns , i.e. N 5Ns . So the normal gap of contact
element is larger than zero, i.e. Zg > 0. This is the case
on the end interface of short fibre.
matrix mu ¼ 460 MPa, the shear strength of the matrix
mu ¼ 230 MPa, the shear yielding strength my ¼
170 MPa; the coefficient of friction between fibre and
matrix is taken as  ¼ 0:2 [14].
4.1. Results of simple theory

Zg > 0 when N 50 and N 5Ns ð8Þ Firstly, the contribution of a short fibre to the
strength is obtained from the simple theory in which the
stress transfer through the end interface of short fibre is
3.2. Perfectly bonded interface part considered. The results of Eqs. (5) and (6) are compared
with the results from shear-lag theory of Eqs. (1) and
The interface may sustain a shear stress being not (2). The results are listed in Table 1.
larger than the resultant of the force of friction and the From Table 1 it may be seen that the difference of the
shear strength s . The transfer of shear stress on the strength contribution of a short fibre between shear lag-
fibre/matrix interface depends on the force of friction theory [Eqs. (1) and (2)] and simple theory in the paper
and the shear strength. [Eqs. (5) and (6)] becomes small when the short fibre
becomes long. This means that the stress transfer
Zg 40 when N < 0 and j j < 
jN j þ s ð9Þ through the end interface of a short fibre is significant
only for fibres of very short length. When the short fibre
becomes long, the influence of stress transfer from the
matrix through the end interface becomes very small
Zg 40 when Ns > N 50 and j j < s ð10Þ which may be left out. When compared with the result
1362 X. Jiang, Q. Gao / Composites Science and Technology 61 (2001) 1359–1366

Table 1
The contribution of a single short fibre to macro-strength of composites

lðiÞ =dðiÞ Shear-lag theorya (MPa) Simple theoryb (MPa) CEMc (MPa) inter d inter e

5 835.00 1289.94 602.13 1.5448 0.7211

10 1401.20 1644.97 666.76 1.1739 0.4759
25 1760.48 1857.99 715.31 1.0554 0.4063
50 1880.24 1928.99 720.06 1.0259 0.3829
100 1940.12 1964.50 703.73 1.0126 0.3627
a
Shear-lag theory is the ratio of the strength contribution of single short fibre from shear-lag theory [Eqs. (1) or (2)] to VfibreðiÞ .
b
Simple theory is the ratio of the strength contribution of single short fibre from the simple theory [Eqs. (5) or (6)] to VfibreðiÞ .
c
CEM is the ratio of the strength contribution of single short fibre from contact element calculation when the end interface is in critical status to
VfibreðiÞ .
d
inter is the ratio of the result from the simple theory in the paper to the result from the shear-lag theory.
e
inter is the ratio of the result from contact element calculation to the result from the shear-lag theory.

of the shear-lag theory, the interfacial efficiency coeffi-

cient inter may be defined as the ratio of the strength
contribution of single short fibre from the simple theory
to that from the shear-lag theory. When the short fibre
becomes long, inter tends to 1.

4.2. Results of special contact-element method

The solution of the stress transfer from the aluminium

alloy matrix to a short carbon fibre is obtained from the
determination of interfacial normal stress and interfacial
shear stress. The status of the fibre/matrix interface from
contact elements may be decided as debonding, slip and
perfectly bonded. The frictional contact problem is
highly non-linear not only because of the friction phe- Fig. 2. Interfacial shear stress on the axial interface.
nomenon itself but also because of the varying bound-
ary condition. Thus the state of the contact system is
inherently path-dependent [9–11]. The loading is divi-
ded into a series of steps and applied step by step.
1. The interfacial shear and normal stresses are
obtained from the contact element calculation in the
case of the fibre/matrix being perfectly bonded, which
means an assumption that the interface can sustain high
tensile and shear stresses without interfacial damage
occurring. The interfacial shear stress on the fibre/
matrix interface along the fibre is shown in Fig. 2 for the
ratio of fibre length to diameter l=d ¼ 10. The inter-
facial normal stress on the end interface of short fibre is
shown in Fig. 3. The temperature intervals $T ¼ 500,
400, 300, 200 and 100 C imply that the carbon/alumi-
nium composites are used under different temperature
Fig. 3. Interfacial normal stress on the end interface.
conditions. $T ¼ 300 C indicates that the working
temperature and the cured temperature of the composite
has a difference of 300 C and it may cause thermal
stress in the composite. The higher the value of $T, the
lower the working temperature of the composite. The
corresponding tensile stress in the fibre in direction Z is
shown in Fig. 4 for l=d ¼ 10. It is found that the stress
transfer from matrix to fibre becomes higher as the
working temperature falls (i.e. $T increase). The effi-
ciency of the short fibres becomes high. The stress transfer
from matrix to fibre through the end interface of a short
fibre has a high efficiency, but it should be noted that
the tensile stress on the end interface of a short fibre is
much higher than the tensile strength at fibre/matrix
interface. The maximum tensile strength for fibre/matrix
interface is the tensile strength of matrix
mu ¼ 460 MPa. So it is found that the fibre/matrix
 X. Jiang, Q. Gao / Composites Science and Technology 61 (2001) 1359–1366
Fig. 4. Tensile stress in fibre in axial direction of fibre for different
working temperture.
interface will first debond on the end interface of a short
fibre, from Fig. 3.
2. The stresses transferred from matrix to fibre are
obtained from the contact-element calculation for the
case of the fibre/matrix being perfectly bonded. The
tensile stress in the fibre is shown in Fig. 5 for different
fibre length-to-diameter ratios, l=d ¼ 5, 25, 50, 100. The
same loading of em ¼ 0:41% is applied. It is found that
the longer the fibre, the higher the stress in fibre, which
means the higher the efficiency of the fibre. It should be
noted that the tensile stress on the end interface of a short
fibre is higher than the tensile strength of the interface.
So the results for a perfectly bonded fibre/matrix inter-
face cannot reflect the real interfacial condition when
the load is applied.
3. In incremental loading, the loading stops when the
tensile stress on the end interface of fibre reaches the
maximum strength of the interface mu =460 MPa. That
is to say the end interface of fibre is on critical status of
debonding. The stress transfer from matrix to fibre is
shown in Fig. 6 for different fibre aspect ratios, l=d ¼ 5,
25, 50, 100. At this critical status, the contribution of a
single short fibre to the macroscopic strength of the
composite is obtained from Fig. 6 and is listed in Table 1
for comparison with the results of shear-lag theory. In
the critical status from the results in Table 1, the con-
tribution of a short fibre to the strength is less than the
result from shear-lag theory, and the longer the fibre
becomes, the less the contribution of the fibre to the
composite strength. The efficiency coefficient of the
interface, inter , compared with shear-lag theory is less
than 1. The strength of a composite obtained from the
critical status may be considered as a safe value for a
short-fibre-reinforced composite, which is less than the
real strength of the composite when macroscopic frac-
ture takes place.
4. If the fibre/matrix interface is allowed to debond in
the loading process, the normal and shear stresses on the
1363
Fig. 5. Tensile stress in fibre for different fibre length to diameter ratio
(unlimited tensile stress of interface).
Fig. 6. Tensile stress in fibre for different fibre length to diameter ratio
(critical status of the end interface).
axial interface and the end interface of the short fibre are
as shown in Figs. 7–10 for different loadings. The
strength of the fibre/matrix interface for short-carbon-
fibre-reinforced aluminium alloy is taken as the max-
imum values: tensile strength 460 MPa and shear
strength 230 MPa. In the process of increase in loading, it
is found that fibre/matrix interfacial debonding occurs
first on the fibre end, and then the axial interface near the
end of short fibre goes into slipping status, but debonding
of the interface at this point does not occur because the
interfacial normal tensile stress at this point is not so great.
In the same loading, it is found in Figs. 9 and 10 that the
tensile stress is much larger than the shear stress on the
end interface. The tensile stress (not the shear stress) is
the reason for the debonding of the end interface
between fibre and matrix. With increase in load, the
shear stress on the axial interface between fibre and
matrix increases as in Fig. 7. The stress transfer from
matrix to fibre is shown in Fig. 11 for l=d ¼ 10. When
the loading is low, the end interface may transfer tensile
stress to the fibre. With increase in load, debonding
1364 X. Jiang, Q. Gao / Composites Science and Technology 61 (2001) 1359–1366
Fig. 7. Interface shear stress on the axial interface for different loading.
Fig. 8. Interfacial normal stress on the axial interface for different
loading.
Fig. 9. Interfacial shear stress on the end interface for different load-
ing.
occurs on the end interface between fibre and matrix,
and then the stress transfer from matrix to fibre then
only depends on the shear stress on axial interface. The
stress transfer from matrix to fibre becomes high when the
Fig. 10. Interfacial normal stress on the end interface for different
loading.
Fig. 11. Tensile stress in fibre for different loading.
load increases. In the contact-element method in the
paper, there exists an assumption that the fibre/matrix
interface may slip although the shear stress exceeds the
shear strength of interface if the tensile stress on the inter-
face is less than the tensile strength of the interface. If the
load increases continuously and the interfacial tensile
stress on the axial interface is less than the tensile
strength of the interface, the axial interface will not
debond and the interfacial shear stress will reach the
shear strength of interface, the maximum stress transfer
from matrix to fibre will reach the tensile strength of fibre.
The same result will be obtained as that from shear-lag
theory. This means that the efficiency coefficient of the
interface will be inter ¼ 1.
5. From Fig. 8 it may be seen that the normal tensile or
compressive stress on the axial interface between a short
fibre and the matrix is not a small value. In this paper
the tensile strength of the interface, s ¼ 460 MPa, is
larger than the tensile stress on the axial interface. If the
tensile strength of the fibre/matrix interface becomes
small, it is possible that interfacial debonding may occur
on the axial interface. The stress transfer from matrix to
short fibre cannot then reach the tensile strength of the
 X. Jiang, Q. Gao / Composites Science and Technology 61 (2001) 1359–1366
short fibre. The contribution of the short fibre to the
composite strength becomes small and inter is less than
1. So, the tensile strength of the fibre/matrix interface
has the same importance as the shear strength of inter-
face in short-fibre-reinforced composites.
6. From the tensile stress on the end interface between
the short fibre and matrix, it may be found that the end
interface of a short fibre is easy to debond in the loading
process. After the debonding of the end interface, the
stress transfer from matrix to fibre depends on shear
stress on the axial interface only. The influence of stress
transfer from the matrix through the end interface is
important only for fibres of very short length. The length
of short fibre below which the influence of stress transfer
from the end interface is important is found to be l=d
3
in the calculation for short-carbon-fibre-reinforced alu-
minium alloy. For short fibres longer than l=d
3, the
contribution of a short fibre to composite strength from
the calculation in the paper may be approximately equal
to that from shear-lag theory. We may have an overall
description of short-fibre-reinforced composites if we use
the micro-structural calculation in our previous paper
[5], in which the influence of short fibre orientation, dia-
meter, length on the strength is considered, and to take
into account of the influence of fibre/matrix interface on
the contribution of short fibre to composite strength in
the paper.
5. Conclusions
In this paper, a simple theory and a special frictional
contact-element method is used to analyse stress trans-
fer from matrix to fibre for short-carbon-fibre-rein-
forced aluminium alloy metal-matrix composites. In the
simple theory from shear-lag theory, the influence of
stress transfer from matrix to fibre through the end
interface between fibre and matrix is taken into account.
In the special frictional contact-element method, the
shear strength and the tensile strength of fibre/matrix
interface are used to judge the slipping or debonding of
interface. The interfacial normal and shear stresses are
obtained on the axial interface and the end interface. In
the case where consideration is taken of the thermal
stress caused by the temperature difference between the
cured temperature and the working temperature of the
composite, it is found that the efficiency of the short
fibres becomes high as the working temperature decrea-
ses. The calculation is made for different fibre aspect
ratios. The stress transfer from matrix to fibre through
the end interface between a short fibre and the matrix is
obtained. It is found that the end interface between a
short fibre and the matrix is easy to debond in the load-
ing process. After the debonding of the end interface, it
cannot transfer stress and stress transfer from matrix to
fibre depends only on the shear stress on the axial inter-
1365
face. The influence of stress transfer from matrix through
the end interface is important only for fibre of very short
length. The length of short fibre below which the influ-
ence of stress transfer from the end interface is impor-
tant is found to be l=d
3 for short-carbon-fibre-
reinforced aluminium alloy. In the case of the tensile
strength of interface not being smaller than the tensile
stress on the axial interface, the contribution of the short
fibres to composite strength from the calculation in the
paper may be equal to that from shear-lag theory
approximately for short fibres longer than l=d
3. Then
the efficiency coefficient of interface compared with
shear-lag theory may be taken as inter ¼ 1 when l=d > 3.
We may have an overall description of short-fibre-rein-
forced composites if we use the micro-structural simula-
tion in our previous paper [5], then the influence of
short-fibre orientation, diameter, length, fibre/matrix
interface on the macroscopic composite strength may be
obtained. The tensile strength of the fibre/matrix inter-
face has the same importance as the shear strength of
interface in short-fibre-reinforced composites.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the Fracture
Mechanics Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Educa-
tion of China for financial support.
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