title: Interfacial effect on physical properties of composite media: Interfacial volume fraction with non-spherical hard-core-soft-shell-structured particles.
abstract: Interfaces are known to be crucial in a variety of fields and the interfacial volume fraction dramatically affects physical properties of composite media. However, it is an open problem with great significance how to determine the interfacial property in composite media with inclusions of complex geometry. By the stereological theory and the nearest-surface distribution functions, we first propose a theoretical framework to symmetrically present the interfacial volume fraction. In order to verify the interesting generalization, we simulate three-phase composite media by employing hard-core-soft-shell structures composed of hard mono-/polydisperse non-spherical particles, soft interfaces, and matrix. We numerically derive the interfacial volume fraction by a Monte Carlo integration scheme. With the theoretical and numerical results, we find that the interfacial volume fraction is strongly dependent on the so-called geometric size factor and sphericity characterizing the geometric shape in spite of anisotropic particle types. As a significant interfacial property, the present theoretical contribution can be further drawn into predicting the effective transport properties of composite materials.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Soft Matter Mechanics, College of Mechanics and Materials, Hohai University, Nanjing, China.|State Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis for Industrial Equipment, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China.|State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Wenxiang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis for Industrial Equipment, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China.
authors.forename: Qinglin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Duan
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Huaifa
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Institute of Soft Matter Mechanics, College of Mechanics and Materials, Hohai University, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Wen
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Huisu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chen