Effect of Property of Interphase Layer on Damping Properties of Polymer Composites Using Sensitivity Analysis

This work studies the damping property of Nanocomposites through simulating wave propagation using the Finite Element Method (FEM). For this purpose Representative Volume Element (RVE) of the composite material is created using Random Sequential Absorption (RSA) algorithm. Damping property is represented using the wave attenuation coefficient. The matrix material is assumed to be isotropic visco-elastic in nature with randomly dispersed stiff elastic spherical fillers. In order to model mechanical imperfections at the boundary of fillers and matrix, the interphase layer is modeled surrounding the spherical fillers. Determining the thickness and stiffness of this interphase region is a challenging task. Therefore this study aims at investigating the effect of variation in thickness and stiffness values of the interphase region on damping property of whole composite using sensitivity analysis. Two specific cases with a volume fraction of 5 % and 8.6 % are selected for sensitivity analysis. It has been found that both the thickness and stiffness of the interphase region plays an important role in deciding the damping properties of the polymer composite. Value of attenuation coefficient is more sensitive to the thickness of interphase than stiffness and hence it is important to choose the value of thickness correctly for accurate predictions.