One of the key aspects governing the mechanical performance of composite materials is debonding: the local separation of reinforcing constituents from matrix when the interfacial strength is exceeded. In this contribution, two strategies to estimate
the overall response of particulate composites with rigid-brittle interfaces are investigated. The first approach is based on a detailed numerical representation of a composite microstructure. The resulting problem is discretized using the Finite Element Tearing and Interconnecting method, which, apart from computational efficiency, allows for an accurate representation of interfacial tractions as well as mutual inter-phase contact conditions. The candidate solver employs the assumption of uniform fields within the composite estimated using the Mori-Tanaka method. A set of representative numerical examples is presented to assess the added value of the detailed numerical model over the simplified micromechanics approach.
