Homogenization in thermoelasticity : application to composite materials

One of the obstacles to the industrial use of metal matrix composite materials is the damage they rapidly undergo when they are subjected to cyclic thermal loadings; local thermal stresses of high level can develop, sometimes nearby or over the elastic limit, due to the mismatch of elastic and thermal coefficients between the fibers and the matrix. For the same reasons, early cracks can appear in composites like ceramic-ceramic. Therefore, we investigate the linear thermoelastic behaviour of heterogeneous materials, taking account of the isentropic coupling term in the heat conduction equation. In the case of periodic materials, recent results, using the homogenization theory, allowed us to describe macroscopic and microscopic behaviours of such materials. This paper is concerned with the numerical simulation of this problem by a finite element method, using a multiscale approach.