Influence of Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles on the Mechanical Properties of Polypropylene: Experimental Studies and Simulations

In this paper the numerical and experimental mechanical properties of polypropylene (PP) reinforced with 1 wt.% mesoporous silica (MCM-41) was investigated. The first step in achieving a valid product simulation for predicting the behavior of porous polymeric nanocomposits is to perform simulations that can accurately reproduce the experimental results. In this paper the hyperelastic behavior of porous polymeric nanocomposits in the tensile, flexural and impact tests and by different form of Strain Energy Density Function containing Marlow, Ogden and Van der Waals were studied. In all cases, at least uniaxial stretching tests were required to fit the model and extract material parameters. The performed simulation results are in good accordance with the experimental data and the Marlow model has better agreement with results of experiment