Patent ID: 8380776

Claim:
A method of computing an overall mechanical material constant of a composite material which includes multiple kinds of material components in a matrix phase, each of mechanical material constants of the material components and the matrix phase being known, comprising the steps of: controlling a nonlinear equation setting component of a computer to prepare a nonlinear equation having an overall material constant of a virtual composite material as an unknown by defining, as the composite material, the virtual composite material in which the material components are dispersed in a form of spherical particles in the matrix phase at known volume fractions; and controlling an equation solver component of the computer to compute the overall material constant of the virtual composite material as the overall material constant of the composite material by solving the prepared nonlinear equation, and wherein the nonlinear equation is a recursive nonlinear equation which is obtained by determining, as the overall material constant of the virtual composite material to be computed, a material constant in surrounding areas of the spherical particles corresponding to the multiple kinds of material components in the virtual composite material.