Journalpaper

Effective bulk moduli of materials containing stochastically distributed nano-inhomogeneities with surface stresses

Abstract

In the present contribution, a mathematical model for the investigation of the effective properties of a material with randomly distributed nano-particles is proposed. The surface effect is introduced via Gurtin-Murdoch equations describing properties of the matrix/nano-particle interface. They are added to the system of stochastic differential equations formulated within the framework of linear elasticity. The homogenization problem is reduced to finding a statistically averaged solution of the system of stochastic differential equations. These equations are based on the fundamental equations of linear elasticity, which are coupled with surface/interface elasticity accounting for the presence of surface tension. Using Green's function this system is transformed to a system of statistically non-linear integral equations. It is solved by the method of conditional moments. Closed-form expressions are derived for the effective moduli of a composite consisting of a matrix with randomly distributed spherical inhomogeneities. The radius of the nano-particles is included in the expression for the bulk moduli. As numerical examples, nano-porous aluminum and nano-porous gold are investigated assuming that only the influence of the interface effects on the effective bulk modulus is of interest. The dependence of the normalized bulk moduli of nano-porous aluminum on the pore volume fraction (for certain radii of nano-pores) are compared to and discussed in the context of other theoretical predictions. The effective Young's modulus of nano-porous gold as a function of pore radius (for fixed void volume fraction) and the normalized Young's modulus vs. the pore volume fraction for different pore radii are analyzed.
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