Stochastic modeling of interphase effects for nanoreinforced heterogeneous materials
Résumé
This paper is concerned with the multiscale analysis of nanoreinforced heterogeneous materials and more speci cally, with the probabilistic modeling of interphase e ffects. The latter have been widely investigated (in a deterministic framework), either in an experimental setting or from a computational point of view. First, we investigate, through molecular dynamics (MD) simulations performed on a nanoreinforced polymer, the local morphology and the mechanical nonlinearities induced by the perturbation of the matrix phase surrounding the inclusion. The simulations allow typical results, such as the exhibition of a reinforcing e ffect or the local perturbation of the polymer density, to be recovered. Second, we make use of the aforementionned results in order to assess some stochastic features associated with random fields of physical properties in the interphase region. These mechanical and statistical properties are subsequently used in order to construct and identify a suitable probabilistic model for the interphase elasticity. The model thus obtained serves as a theoretical basis for the defi nition of an equivalent asymptotic interface model.