An alternative scheme for numerical evaluation of effective elastic moduli of 2D cracked medium

This paper provides an alternative scheme to evaluate the effective elastic moduli of 2D cracked medium. In the proposed scheme, the constant displacements are assumed on the edges of the representative cracked element, and the traction responses are evaluated numerically. Therefore, for an individual inclined angle of crack, the relevant elastic moduli can be evaluated immediately. Finally, the effective elastic moduli for a random distribution of cracks are obtained from an average of those values at many inclined angles. Numerical solution reveals that the obtained effective elastic moduli are upper-bound ones.