Evaluating the effective properties of materials containing various types of in-homogeneities is an important issue in the analysis of structures composed of those materials. A simple and effective method for the purpose is to impose the periodic displacement boundary conditions on the finite element model of a unit cell. Their theoretical background is explained based on the purely kinematical relations in the regularly spaced in-homogeneity problems, and the strategies to implement them into the analysis and to evaluate the homogenized material constants are introduced. The creep behavior of a thin sheet with square arrayed rectangular voids is characterized, where the orthotropy is induced by the presence of the voids. The homogenization method is validated through the comparison of the analysis of detailed model with that of the simplified one with the effective parameters.
