Theplasticload-bearingcapacityofductilecompositessuchasmetalmatrixcompositesisstudiedwithaninsightintothemicrostructures.Themacroscopicstrengthofacompositeisobtainedbycombiningthehomogenizationtheorywithstaticlimitanalysis,wherethetemperatureparametermethodisusedtoconstructtheself-equilibriumstressfield.Aninterfacefailuremodelisproposedtoaccountfortheeffectsoftheinterfaceonthefailureofcomposites.Thestaticlimitanalysiswiththefinite-elementmethodisthenformulatedasaconstrainednonlinearprogrammingproblem,whichissolvedbytheSequentialQuadraticProgramming(SQP)method.Finally,themacroscopictransversestrengthofperforatedmaterials,themacroscopictransverseandoff-axisstrengthoffiber-reinforcedcompositesareobtainedthroughnumericalcalculation.Thecomputationalresultsareingoodagreementwiththeexperimentaldata.
