Strain rate and adhesive energy dependent viscoplastic damage modeling for nanoparticulate composites: Molecular dynamics and micromechanical simulations

Abstract

A viscoplastic damage model based on molecular dynamics (MD) and micromechanics is proposed to predict the rate-dependent inelastic behavior of nanoparticle-reinforced polymer composites. The constitutive equation is developed by combining the solution of the elastic problem and Laplace-transformed superposition principle. The MD simulation is then conducted to derive the interfacial adhesive energy of nanocomposites (silica/nylon-6), and the MD results are applied to the viscoplastic damage model. Influences of the strain rate sensitivity and the interfacial debonding damage on nanocomposites are discussed, and predictions from the proposed approach are compared with experimental measurements to elucidate the potential of the formulation.