Paper number 786

DAMAGE IN PARTICULATE COMPOSITES WITH HARD PARTCILES EMBEDDED IN A SOFT MATRIX

Young W. Kwon¹ and C. T. Liu²

1Department of Mechanical Engineering, Naval Postgraduate School
700 Dyer Road, Monterey, California, 93943, USA
2OL/AC, Air Force Research Laboratory
10 East Saturn Blouvard, Edwards AFB, California, 93524, USA

Summary

Damage evolution in a particulate composite around a notch tip was studied. The composite had hard and stiff particles embedded in a soft and weak matrix like a rubber material. The major damage modes were the interface debonding called dewetting and the resulting matrix cracking because the particles were much stronger than the matrix. A numerical modeling and simulation of such damage was conducted using the micro/macro-approach. This technique combined micro-level analysis and macro-level analysis. Damage was described at the micro-level using a damage theory. Damage initiation and growth at a circular notch tip were predicted from the numerical study, and their results were compared to experimental data. Both results compared very well.

Keywords

damage, particulate composite, micromechanics, finite element analysis, micro/macro-approach.