Title: SIMULATING ATOMIC FORCE MICROSCOPY FOR THE DETERMINATION OF THE ELASTIC PROPERTIES OF NANOPARTICLE REINFORCED EPOXY RESIN
Abstract: Nanoparticles show a great potential in improving especially the matrix-dominated mechanical properties of fiber reinforced plastics, like compressive strength or impact tolerance.The composition of the interphase between nanoparticles and the surrounding matrix is assumed to be of vital importance for the mechanical properties of the composite material.Characterizing nanoparticle-matrix interphases with experimental methods, e.g. using atomic force microscopy (AFM), is highly complex and time consuming.Therefore an AFMsimulation technique based on the Molecular Dynamic Finite Element Method (MDFEM) is introduced.The MDFEM provides a powerful method for simulating molecular dynamic problems within the finite element framework, perspectively allowing for the efficient simulation of multi-scale models and pure FE-models in order to reduce the numerical cost for bigger problems.With the presented method, the elastic properties of pure boehmite particles as well as pure epoxy resin have been determined and are in good agreement with experimentally obtained values.The influence of different particle-matrix interactions on the elastic properties of the interphase has been studied for unmodified boehmite particles.Supporting virtual tensile tests on cubic unit cells show outstanding accordance with experimental results.The presented method can contribute to the optimization of nanocomposite materials and at the same time reduce the need for experimental effort.