Abstract
A concise matrix formulation is presented to illustrate the effects of experimental uncertainties on the characterization of anisotropic com posite materials. The matrix equations permit a graphic illustration of the individual roles played by measurement errors, sample variations, and the degree of anisotropy on the computation of the anisotropic stiffness co efficients. With particular reference to the characterization of materials containing voids, it is shown that variations in the void content can lead to material constants which appear to violate the symmetry conditions assumed for hyperelastic materials. A simple statistical test is recom mended for the evaluation of characterization experiments whenever the contribution of error is uncertain.
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