Abstract
In this investigation, a re-formulation has been developed to investigate the effect of fiber aspect ratio on the effective elastic moduli of fiber-reinforced polymers/composites. The matrix and inclusions are considered as isotropic materials. The five independent elastic constants are derived based on a modified Mori–Tanaka theory. The relationship between composite elastic constants and inclusion aspect ratio is also established. Three types of composites containing unidirectional aligned fiber and two-dimensional and three-dimensional random orientated inclusions are explicitly analyzed. Moreover, three extreme cases involving long fibers, spheres, and thin discs are taken into account. It is found that the longitudinal elastic properties are very sensitive to fiber-like inclusions, whereas the transverse elastic properties are closely related to disc-like inclusions.
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Funding
This study was funded by the Science Research Foundation of Hebei Advanced Institutes (ZD2017075) and Graduate Innovation Research Assistant Support Project of Yanshan University (CXZS201708).
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Appendix
Appendix
For a spherical inclusion with a1 = a2 = a3 and fiber aspect ratio λ = 1, the components of the tensor S are simplified to
For a long fiber-shaped inclusion with aspect ratio \( \lambda =\frac{a_1}{a_3}\to \infty \), we have
For a thin disc with \( \lambda =\frac{a_1}{a_3}\to 0 \), we get
For the spheroidal inclusion \( \lambda =\frac{a_1}{a_3} \), the components of the tensor S are simplified to
where ν0 is the Poisson ratio of the matrix, λ is the aspect ratio of the inclusion, and g is given by
\( g=\frac{\lambda }{{\left(1-{\lambda}^2\right)}^{3/2}}\left[\operatorname{arccos}\left(\lambda \right)-\lambda {\left(1-{\lambda}^2\right)}^{1/2}\right] \), prolate shape a1 > a2 = a3.
\( \mathrm{g}=\frac{\lambda }{{\left({\lambda}^2-1\right)}^{3/2}}\left[\lambda {\left({\lambda}^2-1\right)}^{1/2}-\operatorname{arccos}h\left(\lambda \right)\right] \), oblate shapea1 < a2 = a3.
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Pan, J., Bian, L. A re-formulation of the Mori–Tanaka method for predicting material properties of fiber-reinforced polymers/composites. Colloid Polym Sci 297, 529–543 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00396-019-04472-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00396-019-04472-y