Plane stress finite element analysis of filler reinforced polymers

The characteristics of polymers such as force-deformation behaviour, strength, fatigue and wear resistance, can be tailored by embedding it with filler particles. The influence of the fillers on the material behaviour significantly depends on the size and geometric form of the filler aggregates, which vary under mechanical loading. The concept of super element is used to model filler particles. This is now coupled with the polymer matrix to generate a finite element model of filler reinforced polymers. In this work, we investigate the effect of filler geometry and volume fraction of fillers on the overall stiffness of the filler reinforced polymer. (© 2012 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)