Homogenization in strength and durability analysis of reinforced tooth filling

Abstract

An asymptotic homogenization procedure is employed to obtain effective elastic properties of the composite tooth filling, a homogenized macro– stress field and a first approximation to the micro-stress field, from properties of the components and applied macro–loads. Using the approximate micro–stress field, a non–local initial strength and fatigue durability macro–conditions for the composite filling material is expressed in terms of the homogenized macro–stresses. An illustrative example with the stress singularity on the tooth–filling interface is presented showing the need in the non-local analysis. Effective elastic properties of the tooth filling is numerically simulated for some size distributions of the reinforcing particles.