Composite media as generalized continua

Donald T. Easley

When the wavelength of a disturbance within a composite medium is large in comparison to the constituents of the composite, it becomes appropriate to look for average quantities which describe the relevant observable phenomena and to replace the composite with a generalized continuum which describes the evolution of these average quantities. One particular form of averaging will be investigated and a particular generalized continuum description will be developed for a linear elastic composite.