MICROSTRUCTURE BASED FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF PARTICLE FILLED POLYMER COMPOSITE

Particle filled polymer composites are widely used because of its tailor-made properties and ease of manufacturability. Existing micro mechanical models to characterize heterogeneous material are based on the Representative Volume Element (RVE). The assumptions made in the RVE model, play a crucial role in the exact prediction of effective properties of the composites. In this work, microstructure based RVE is utilized to predict the effective properties of Solid Glass Microsphere (SGM) filled epoxy composite. The Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) image obtained from the specimens fabricated at different loading fractions is processed in MATLAB. Canny edge detection algorithm is utilized for processing the images. The random dispersion of the particle is exactly modeled in ANSYS from the MATLAB output. The effective Young's modulus of the SGM filled epoxy composite is determined. The numerically predicted values are compared with the experimental value and analytical models.