Review on Modeling of Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Nano- and Micro-Composites

This article deals with the prediction of thermomechanical properties of fiber reinforced composites using several micromechanics models. These include strength of material approach, Halpin-Tsai equations, multi-phase mechanics of materials approaches, multi-phase Mori-Tanaka models, composite cylindrical assemblage model, Voigt-Reuss models, modified mixture rule, Cox model, effective medium approach and method of cells. Several composite systems reinforced with short and long, aligned, random and wavy reinforcements were considered. In addition, different aspects such as fiber-matrix interphase, fiber-matrix interfacial thermal resistance, fiber geometry, and multiple types of reinforcements were considered to model the composites systems. The current study also presents some important preliminary concepts and application of developed micromechanics models to advanced nanocomposites such as carbon nanotube reinforced composite. Main contribution of the current work is the investigation of several analytical micromechanical models, while most of the existing studies on the subject deal with only one or two approaches considering few aspects.