A novel interphase modeling to estimate the effective mechanical properties of GNPreinforcedpolymer nanocomposites

The present work is aimed at interphase modelling by a۳-D analytical high fidelity generalized method of cell(HFGMC) micromechanical model to extract the elasticproperties of the polymer nanocomposites reinforcedgraphene nanoplatelets (GNPs). As a new idea, the GNPand its surrounding interphase are modelled as inclusioninto a representative volume element (RVE) ofnanocomposite containing two phases includinginclusion and polymer matrix. Two mostly realsituations-encountered substantial aspects affecting thepolymer nanocomposite material behavior including theGNP content and the GNP/polymer interphase regionare modelled and effects of these aspects on thenanocomposite properties are taken into account. It isassumed that the stiffness of GNP/polymer matrixinterphase region changes gradually in the range of GNPstiffness and the polymer matrix stiffness. The GNP is atransversely isotropic material and both polymer matrixand interphase region are considered elastic withisotropic behavior. To verify the presentedmicromechanical model, firstly, the results of themicromechanical model compared with theexperimental data. At the second step, the effect ofvarious parameters including GNP content, interphaseregion characterization containing the thickness andadhesion coefficient are studied. Generally, an excellentagreement is found between the result of the presentmodel and available experiment with consideration ofthe graded interphase.

Keywords:

Micromechanical model , Graphene nanoplatelet , GNP size effect , Interphase region