EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE MECHANICAL BEHAVIOR OF PARTICULATE COMPOSITES

Resumo

Particulate composites are advanced materials whose use has grown significantly across various industrial sectors. Their mechanical, thermal, and functional versatility make them key materials for aerospace, automotive, civil, mechanical, and electronic applications. It has been well known that the microstructure of a material has pronounced influence on its macroscopic engineering response. Therefore, a detailed understanding of the evolution, behavior, and mechanical response of materials at microlevel is crucial. In this spirit, this study investigates the mechanical behavior at the microlevel of three composite systems: Aluminum/SiC, Epoxy/Silica, and Silicone/Silica, selected based on their technological relevance and specific properties such as stiffness, thermal stability, flexibility, and wear resistance. The approach combines experimental and numerical methods with emphasis on microstructural modeling in a Finite Element Method (FEM) context. To represent the heterogeneous structure of these materials, we developed numerical models at the microscale using Representative Volume Elements (RVEs). The methodology integrates experimental validation through comparison with real data and computational verification by contrasting with alternative models (e.g., Rule of Mixtures and Mori-Tanaka). Thus, RVE-based simulations enable detailed analysis of stress and strain distributions at the matrix-inclusion interface, elucidating how microscale phenomena determine macroscopic material behavior. The results provide fundamental insights for developing advanced multiscale modeling strategies and intelligent material optimization, establishing quantitative relationships between microstructure and macroscopic properties. These contributions open new perspectives for the rational design of performance-tailored particulate composites for specific applications.