Abstract: According to the arrangement of fiber in monodirectional basalt fiber composite material, with consideration of geometric symmetry and introducing of the strain coordination hypothesis, a rectangular representative volume element is proposed. Then the transverse elastic modulus of monodirectional basalt fiber composite material can be derived according to the arrangement of fiber and matrix material in the representative volume element. The comparison of the calculated results with the experimental results and other similar theoretical results shows that the representative volume element method can well predict the transverse elastic modulus of monodirectional basalt fiber composite material.

Key words: basalt fiber, composite material, representative volume element, transverse modulus of elasticity