Self-Consistent Methods for Composites

The first in the world literature systematic development of self-consistent schemes (the effective medium and effective field methods) and their different versions in application to the problems of the mechanics and physics of heterogeneous materials Contains many concrete results: explicit formulas for the effective properties of composite materials of various micro structures. These formulas will help material engineers to evaluate influence of details of material micro structures on the effective properties, and to create materials with an optimal specter of the properties Presents comparisons of predictions of different self-consistent schemes with experimental results and numerical solutions existing in the literature. Such comparisons show the area of applications of self-consistent methods and the character of possible errors in their predictions The most important part of the book (the second volume) contains applications of self-consistent methods to the problem of wave propagation through composite materials Self-consistent solutions obtained cover long, middle and short wave regions of propagating waves. This makes the book a unique one: such an analysis does not exist in the monographic literature