Effect of the stochastic nature of the constituents parameters on the predictability of the elastic properties of fibrous nano-composites

The stochastic nature and the variability of the constituents of nano-composites materials affect the predictability of their properties. The few studies that dealt with the probabilistic nature of the micromechanics of fibrous nano-composites, focused on the effect of statistical variation of individual parameters. This study presents a systematic analysis of the influence of parameter randomness on the theoretical predictions of the elastic properties of nano-composites. To this end, Monte-Carlo simulations are performed using a modified version of the Mori-Tanaka Mean-Field theory under different combinations of parameter randomness. The results indicate that the randomness in interface imperfection, fibre orientation and length, and fibre stiffness have a significant influence on the variability of the composite properties. The analysis provided an insight into the sensitivity of the predictions of the elastic tensor to the probabilistic variations of the aforementioned parameters. A probabilistic model for the effective properties is called for in place of deterministic models.