Finite element analysis about effects of particle morphology on mechanical response of composites

Finite element (FE) method was employed to analyze three composite models with 15% vol. particles. In each model, a number of SiC particles with different size inhomogeneously distributed in the 6061-Al matrix, and each model was treated as an unit model of composite. In model A, particles were angular with sharp corners; in model B, particles were also angular, while most sharp corners were deleted; in model C, particles were circular. The longer dimension of most particles in models A and B was assumed to be along the load axis. The purpose of this paper was to determine effects of treating particle morphology on the overall stress–strain relations, local fatigue property and ductility of composites. Numerical results show that the overall stress–strain curves of three models are quite similar under the non-damage assumption; the particle morphology significantly affects the load carried by particles; the largest stress in particles of model A locates at the load direction sharp corners. The FE results confirm the conclusion of experiment that the main benefit of deleting particle sharp corners is the reducing of the possibility of particle fracture.