A study of compaction of composite particles by multi-particle finite element method

We study the compaction of composite mixture of soft and hard micro-/nano-size particles using multi-particle finite element method. In this method, each particle is fully discretized into finite element mesh. Local non-uniform contact deformation and non-uniformity stress chains transmitted through the composite are well illustrated. In this work, we focus on the effect of inter-particle friction and volume fraction of hard particles on compaction pressure. Results of closed die compaction of 400 two-dimensional monosize spherical particles of zero and 40% volume fraction hard particles are presented. The results show that compaction pressure increases with inter-particle friction and volume fraction of hard particles. The predicted compaction pressure curves are in good agreement with experimental data and other models. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.