Elastoplastic modeling of polymeric composites containing randomly located nanoparticles with an interface effect

An elastoplastic constitutive model is proposed to predict the overall behavior of nanoparticle-reinforced polymeric composites. The effective elastic moduli of nanocomposites, composed of a polymer matrix and randomly dispersed nanoparticles, are constructed by incorporating the Eshelby tensor considering the interface effect into a micromechanics-based ensemble volume-averaged method. Micromechanical homogenization procedures are utilized to estimate an effective yield function in accordance with the continuum plasticity theory and are employed to predict the overall elastoplastic behavior. The effects of the particle size, interface moduli and the strengthening influence of the nanoparticles are investigated via numerical simulations. Finally, comparisons between theoretical predictions and the available experimental data are made to assess the predictive capability of the proposed framework. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.