Effective Thermoelasticity of Polymer-Bonded Particle Composites with Imperfect Interfaces and Thermally Expansive Interphases

A micromechanical model for the thermoelasticity of polymer-bonded composites is presented. The model is particularly aimed at describing materials where the polymeric binder phase undergoes non-negligible thermal expansion affecting the overall thermoelastic response. Constitutive choices for modeling a mixed binder-void interphase layer are proposed, and an associated decomposition of total eigenstrains into classical, elastic imperfection (damage), and binder thermal expansivity parts is examined within the context of imperfect inter-particle interfaces. A novel temperature dependent modified Eshelby tensor is identified, making possible the development of a temperature dependent modified self-consistent homogenization schemewhat we call the M-SCH model. A method for distinguishing between dispersed and isolated parts of the binder and void phases in the model is also provided, along with a description of particle coating (or interphase) thickness derived from particle morphology and mesoscale effective properties. Although the theory is general, its development is motivated by the need to model anisotropic and highly nonlinear observed thermal expansion behavior of the polymer bonded explosive PBX 9502, for which model simulations are performed and compared with existing measurements.