TY - JOUR

T1 - Predictions of J integral and tensile strength of clay/epoxy nanocomposites material using phase field model

AU - Msekh, Mohammed A.

AU - Silani, Mohammad

AU - Jamshidian, M.

AU - Areias, P.

AU - Zhuang, Xiaoying

AU - Zi, G.

AU - He, Pengfei

AU - Rabczuk, Timon

N1 - Funding information: The first author would like to thank the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research of Iraq (MoHESR) and Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst DAAD for their support through BaghDAAD program. We like to acknowledge DFG, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in the framework of the Sofja Kovalevskaja Award and ITN-INSIST. The support of the High-End Foreign Expert Program is gratefully acknowledged.

PY - 2016/3/2

Y1 - 2016/3/2

N2 - We predict macroscopic fracture related material parameters of fully exfoliated clay/epoxy nanocomposites based on their fine scale features. Fracture is modeled by a phase field approach which is implemented as user subroutines UEL and UMAT in the commercial finite element software Abaqus. The phase field model replaces the sharp discontinuities with a scalar damage field representing the diffuse crack topology through controlling the amount of diffusion by a regularization parameter. Two different constitutive models for the matrix and the clay platelets are used; the nonlinear coupled system consisting of the equilibrium equation and a diffusion-type equation governing the phase field evolution are solved via a Newton-Raphson approach. In order to predict the tensile strength and fracture toughness of the clay/epoxy composites we evaluated the J integral for different specimens with varying cracks. The effect of different geometry and material parameters, such as the clay weight ratio (wt.%) and the aspect ratio of clay platelets are studied.

AB - We predict macroscopic fracture related material parameters of fully exfoliated clay/epoxy nanocomposites based on their fine scale features. Fracture is modeled by a phase field approach which is implemented as user subroutines UEL and UMAT in the commercial finite element software Abaqus. The phase field model replaces the sharp discontinuities with a scalar damage field representing the diffuse crack topology through controlling the amount of diffusion by a regularization parameter. Two different constitutive models for the matrix and the clay platelets are used; the nonlinear coupled system consisting of the equilibrium equation and a diffusion-type equation governing the phase field evolution are solved via a Newton-Raphson approach. In order to predict the tensile strength and fracture toughness of the clay/epoxy composites we evaluated the J integral for different specimens with varying cracks. The effect of different geometry and material parameters, such as the clay weight ratio (wt.%) and the aspect ratio of clay platelets are studied.

KW - A. Polymer-matrix composites (PMCs)

KW - B. Fracture

KW - B. Interface/interphase

KW - C. Computational modelling

KW - C. Finite element analysis (FEA)

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84961789192&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.compositesb.2016.02.022

DO - 10.1016/j.compositesb.2016.02.022

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:84961789192

VL - 93

SP - 97

EP - 114

JO - Composites Part B: Engineering

JF - Composites Part B: Engineering

SN - 1359-8368

ER -