Prediction of effective thermo-mechanical properties of particulate composites

A micromechanics-based model is developed to predict the effective thermo-mechanical properties of energetic materials, which are composite materials made from agglomeration of particles of a range of sizes. A random packing algorithm is implemented to construct a representative volume element for the heterogeneous material based on the experimentally determined particle diameter distribution. The effective mechanical properties of the material are then evaluated through finite element modeling, while its thermal properties are determined through a finite volume approach. The model is first carefully validated against results from the literature and is then used to estimate the thermo-mechanical properties of particular energetic materials. Good agreement is found between experimental results and predictions. The stress-bridging phenomenon in the particulate materials is captured by the model. Thermodynamic averaging is shown to be a poor representation for the estimation of thermo-mechanical properties of these heterogeneous materials. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.