The effect of non-symmetric distribution of fiber orientation and aspect ratio on elastic properties of composites

A composite's microstructure significantly influences its overall properties. Orientation and aspect ratio of the fiber are two key parameters that describe the microstructures of a composite with straight short fibers. This paper discusses the effects of fiber orientation and aspect ratio distribution on the overall elastic properties of composites using the Mori-Tanaka's method in this paper. The results show that using an average aspect ratio of the fibers to estimate overall elastic properties is not appropriate under some conditions. When the aspect ratio of the fibers does not follow a symmetric distribution, the overall elastic properties obtained by the average aspect ratio of the fibers may differ by more than 30% from those obtained by the method considering the aspect ratio distribution. This paper presents a model used to predict the properties of nanotube-reinforced composites. The results obtained by the model were compared with experimental results. (C) 2006-Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.