Attempt was made to study the effect of orientation distribution of disk-shaped fillers on the effective elastic moduli of disk-reinforced composites. The analysis is based upon the Eshelby's equivalent inclusion method and the smearing-out approximation of Takahashi et al., which can be applied to the estimation of the effect of orientation distribution of ellipsoidal fillers together with the interaction among the fillers. In this paper, the expressions of the analytical procedure are refined and simplified, and numerical results are presented for the composites containing disk-shaped particles. Analytical results are in good agreement with experimental data on mica/PP composites. It is shown that disks are more effective for Young's modulus than fibers, in both two-dimensional and three-dimensional reinforcement.
The yield zone at fatigue crack tip of MBS particulate filled polyvinyl chloride is investigated with various kinds of stabilizer and the filler content by fracture mechanics and electron microscopy. It is found that the shape and size of yield zone are changed by different kinds of stabilizer and the filler content, and that a mechanism of energy absorption during fatigue process is based on the formation of microvoids in the rubber part of particle and the creation of voids in the aggregate of particles.