Prediction of Temperature Dependent Effective Moduli of Metal Particle Composites with Debonding Damage

Debonding is one of the most commonly observed damage mechanisms in metal particle composites, which poses additional difficulties for material characterization and performance evaluation. In this paper, the equivalent modulus of debonded particles in tension and compression was derived in accordance with the debonding configurations, respectively. The debonded particles were then incorporated into the Mori-Tanaka method as a third phase with reduced modulus but perfectly bonded to the matrix. Finally, a micromechanical model of the temperature dependent effective moduli of metal particle composites was proposed, taking into account the degradation of the matrix modulus and the evolution of percentage of debonded particles at elevated temperatures. The model predictions were in high agreement with the experimental and simulation results, demonstrating the predictive ability of the micromechanical model. This study gives a highly practical forecasting toolkit for composite modulus evaluation over a wide temperature range. In addition, parametric analyses were carried out to investigate the effects of debonding configuration, temperature, and percentage of debonded particles, which contributes to further understanding of the debonding mechanism, leading to rational material design.