Numerical modelling of PP/CaCO3/SGF hybrid nanocomposite

A two–step three–dimensional (3D) finite element (FE) modelling was carried out to predict the elasticmodulus and the tensile strength of multi-scale hybrid nanocomposite containing PP, nano-CaCO3 particle andmicro-short glass fiber using ANSYS FE software. Cylindrical and cuboid representative volume elements(RVE) were created to obtain the effective behavior of the composite. At the first step, the mechanicalperformance of PP/CaCO3 nanocomposite was analyzed. The interphase layer thickness of nanoparticle wasestimated using DSC data. At the second step, the PP/CaCO3 was considered as an effective matrix and then theeffect of SGF inclusion on corresponding effective matrix was evaluated. The comparison of FE predictions andexperimental results indicated that the proposed method can predict the tensile properties of the hybrid compositewith acceptable deviation.

Keywords:

FEM , hybrid composites , nanocomposites , tensile Properties , effective hybrid