A multi-scale and multi-mechanism approach for the fracture toughness assessment of polymer nanocomposites

In the present work, a multi-scale modelling strategy to assess the fracture toughness of nanopartide filled thermosetting polymers is presented. The model accounts for the main damaging mechanisms arising in this kind of materials, i.e. nanoparticle debonding, plastic yielding of nanovoids and plastic shear banding of the polymer. Further, the proposed analytical framework considers the influence of an interphase around nanoparticles, a particular feature of nanocomposites. Comparison of the theory to a bulk of experimental data from the literature shows a very good agreement. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.