Steigmann-Ogden interface effect on the effective elastic properties of nanoparticle-reinforced composites: From nanocomposites to nanoparticles

Closed-form bound and estimate solutions to the effective elastic properties of nanoparticle-reinforced com-posites with Steigmann-Ogden interface effect are obtained based on composite sphere assemblage and gener-alized self-consistent method respectively. Compared with Maxwell-type approximation in the literature, the closed-form estimate solution to the effective shear modulus in this work is validated to fall inside the bound solutions. When the nanocomposite becomes the nanoparticle as the particle volume fraction is extremely high, the bounds of the effective shear modulus of the nanoparticle are unexpected to be distinct as a non-neutral inclusion. However, by properly adjusting the stretching and bending stiffness of the interface, it is found that the neutrality condition of the nanoparticle could be achieved which is generally impossible under transverse shear boundary conditions.

Automated summary

Closed-form bound and estimate solutions to the effective elastic properties of nanoparticle-reinforced composites with Steigmann-Ogden interface effect are obtained. The closed-form estimate solution for the effective shear modulus falls inside the bound solutions, which validates its accuracy. It is found that by adjusting the stretching and bending stiffness of the interface, the neutrality condition of the nanoparticle can be achieved even under transverse shear boundary conditions, which is generally impossible.