Author : Siva Bhaskara Rao Devireddy and Sandhyarani Biswas

The incorporation of a realistic interphasial region into the micromechanical analyses of composite systems is critical to the understanding of composite behaviour. The interphase in fiber reinforced composites depends on the fiber, matrix and surface treatment of fibers. The main objective of the present is investigating the effect of an interphase on elastic constants of unidirectional fiber reinforced composites. A finite element micromechanical model was used to predict effective elastic properties of Kevlar fiber reinforced epoxy composites with and without effect of interphase. A three-dimensional representative volume element (RVE) model with a hexagonal packing geometry is considered to predict the elastic properties of Kevlar fiber reinforced epoxy composites by finite element analysis. The finite element analysis is done by using ANSYS software with periodic boundary conditions. The analytical models like rule of mixtures, Halpin-Tsai and periodic microstructure methods are used to validate the finite element results. It has been observed that the interphasial region and fiber volume fraction significantly influencing the elastic properties of composites.

Keywords: Fiber Composite, Interphase, Micromechanics, Representative Volume Element, Volume Fraction

Article published in International Conference on Advances in Mechanical Sciences 2014, Special Issue-2 (Feb 2014)