Effects of particle clustering on the plastic deformation and damage initiation of particulate reinforced composite utilizing X-ray CT data and finite element modeling

In this paper, a new simulation technique which can include microstructural inhomogeneity of particulate reinforced composites is proposed to accurately study deformation pattern and damage mechanism in these composites. Three dimensional microstructures constructed from XCT images incorporated into finite element modeling codes with minimal approximation to capture the effects of cluster size, local volume fraction of particles in the cluster and the distance between clusters as relevant statistical quantities describing the microstructural inhomogeneity of particulate reinforced composites. A quantitative parameter as degree of clustering is defined to consider particle clustering effect.…