Evaluation of influence of interphase material parameters on effective material properties of three phase composites

In this paper, evaluation of effective material properties of different types of three phase composites (reinforcement, matrix and in between interphase) using numerical homogenization techniques (representative volume element (RVE) approach) based on finite element method is presented. The influence of interphase parameters like stiffness and volume fraction of interphase on effective material properties of transversely randomly distributed uni-directional fiber composites and randomly distributed spherical particle composites is studied. The RVEs, required for transversely randomly distributed uni-directional fiber composites and randomly distributed spherical particle composites, are generated using a modified random sequential adsorption (RSA) algorithm with periodicity on opposite boundary surfaces. The numerical results are compared with analytical methods like asymptotic homogenization method for regular arrangement of uni-directional fiber composites.