Prediction for debonding damage process and effective elastic properties of glass-bead-filled modified polyphenylene oxide

A three-dimensional three-phase finite element unit cell model has been applied to predict the debonding damage process of particulate polymer composites (PPC) during tensile deformation. The model consists of a particle, an interface and a polymer matrix. The particle-matrix debonding process has been simulated by using a particle-matrix debonding criterion and a vanishing finite element technique. For verification of the predicted results, the results obtained in the in situ SEM experiments of our previous study on glass beads reinforced modified polyphenylene oxide (GB/PPO) were used The predicted results are in good agreement with the experimental micro-scale tensile debonding-damage process. Anisotropic damage in materials like PPC is very difficult to measure by conventional experimental methods. In order to provide anisotropic damage information of the damaged composites, this was amongst the first time to predict the effective elastic properties of PPC in different principal directions by performing a virtual load–unload test on the partially debonded cell model. Some predicted results would be compared with those of experimental load–unload test.