Effects of Clay Orientation and Interphase on the Elastic Modulus of Polymer/Clay Nanocomposites

In recent years, the study of polymer/clay nanocomposites has attracted the major research and commercial interests due to their superior mechanical and thermal properties to those of the neat polymers. Numerical modelling is an advantageous approach to investigate the microstructural parameters such as particle size, shape, spatial position and orientation and material properties including elastic modulus and Poisson’s ratio of the constitutive phases to understand the overall material behaviour.In this study two Finite Element Models are developed to evaluate the elastic modulus of polymer/clay nanocomposites. In the first one it is supposed that the clay flakes are surrounded by interphase and are completely aligned and randomly distributed in polymer matrix. The results of this model in two-dimensional and three-dimensional are investigated. In the second model the clay flakes are randomly oriented in a polymer matrix. The model is in good agreement with the published data in literature [1]. A parametric study is also conducted to understand the relative influence of microstructural parameters on the elastic modulus of nanocomposites.