Interphase effect on the elastic and thermal conductivity response of polymer nanocomposite materials: 3D finite element study

In this study, we developed 3-dimensional (3D) finite element modeling for the investigation of interphase effects on the elastic modulus and thermal conductivity of polymer nanocomposite materials filled with randomly oriented as well as unidirectional particles. We studied the effects of fillers geometry (long cylinders to sphere and thin discs), volume fraction and properties contrast and particularly the effect of interphase thickness and properties contrast on the effective thermal conductivity and elastic modulus of nanocomposite structures. Our results show that while the interphase effect is significant for the spherical fillers, it turns to be less effective as the fillers' geometry deviates more from spherical shape. The obtained results could be useful to guide design of nanocomposite materials with superior elastic and thermal conductivity properties. (C) 2012 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.