A general micromechanical framework of effective moduli for the design of nonspherical nano- and micro-particle reinforced composites with interface properties

Abstract

The morphological and physical properties of interfaces can significantly affect the overall mechanical properties of nano- and micro-particle reinforced composites. In this work, we devise a general micromechanical framework to predict the effective elastic moduli of particle-reinforced composites containing ellipsoidal nano- or micro-particles with varying interface properties (e.g., both hard and soft). Specifically, the interface is treated as an interphase perfectly bonding the particle and matrix with a finite thickness and volume fraction. The morphological characteristics of the interface (e.g., volume fraction) are quantified using a statistical geometry approach and subsequently incorporated into the Mori-Tanaka average scheme with Eshelby's equivalent inclusion theory to derive the general micromechanical framework for the three-phase composites with non-spherical inclusions. We show that our new framework leads to predictions of the elastic moduli of a wide spectrum of nano- and micro-particle reinforced composites with both soft and hard interfaces to a reasonable accuracy by comparing with available experimental data and predictions from other theoretical frameworks. The general framework provides a robust and convenient predictive toolkit for composite design and evaluation.