Multiscale analysis and experimental validation of the effective elastic modulus of epoxy-dioctahedral phyllosilicate clay composite

O O Daramola; J L Olajide; A A Adediran; B O Adewuyi; T T Ayodele; D A Desai; E R Sadiku

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04008

Multiscale analysis and experimental validation of the effective elastic modulus of epoxy-dioctahedral phyllosilicate clay composite

Heliyon. 2020 Jun 8;6(6):e04008. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04008. eCollection 2020 Jun.

Authors

O O Daramola^{1

2}, J L Olajide³, A A Adediran⁴, B O Adewuyi¹, T T Ayodele¹, D A Desai³, E R Sadiku²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Federal University of Technology Akure, Nigeria.
² Institute of NanoEngineering Research (INER) and the Department of Chemical, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa.
³ Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa.
⁴ Mechanical Engineering Department, Landmark University, Omu-Aran, Kwara State, Nigeria.

Abstract

In this research, developed finite element codes were used to study the effective elastic modulus and stress-strain distribution profiles of epoxy resin filled with 6 wt. % microparticles of kaolinite. The random distribution of the particles was microstructurally regenerated with Digimat MSC software and random sequential algorithm codes in epoxy matrix. Stochastic representative volume element models of the composites were developed and analyzed under periodic boundary conditions. For validation, the predicted result by finite element analysis was compared with that of Mori-Tanaka's mean field homogenization scheme, selected micromechanical models and experiment. All the results indicated that 6 wt. % of kaolinite microparticles can improve the elastic modulus and load-bearing capacity of epoxy resin with <5 % error between predicted and actual results. The microstructure, phase identification and chemical characterization of the composite were also studied with scanning electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction spectroscopy and energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, respectively. In addition, the particle size and distribution of the kaolinite in the epoxy matrix were experimentally investigated.

Keywords: Epoxy resin; Finite element modeling; Kaolinite inclusion; Layered silicate mineral; Materials science; Polymer composites.