Modeling of polymer/clay nanocomposites by an iterative micromechanical approach

Abstract

An iterative micromechanical method is presented in order to predict the elastic constants of composites and nanocomposites including arbitrarily oriented reinforcement particles. The proposed method is capable of introducing into the matrix any kind of heterogeneity based on its dimension, orientation, mechanical properties and volume fraction. The efficiency and convergence of solution method is studied by computing the elasticity tensor of a unidirectional particulate composite. It is then applied to model the elastic behavior of nylon-6/clay nanocomposite with taking into consideration the probability distribution of aspect ratio and orientation of effective particles. The results are validated by comparison with available experimental data.