Micromechanics modeling of magneto-sensitive polymeric materials during curing

Abstract

This work proposes a coupled magneto-mechanical multi-scale model for simulating the curing process of magneto-sensitive polymers. In this type of composites, ferromagnetic particles are mixed with a liquid polymeric matrix in the uncured stage. The polymer curing process is a complex mechanism that transforms a fluid to a solid with time. In order to identify the overall response of the magneto-mechanically coupled polymeric composite, an extended Mori-Tanaka semi-analytical homogenization procedure is utilized that tranfers information from the micro to the macroscale. The stiffness gaining phenomenon as in the case of a curing process is realized by time-dependent material parameters appearing within the polymer piezomagnetic material tensors. Moreover, the volume reduction during curing is taken into account through a magnetic induction dependent shrinkage model. Several numerical examples illustrate the model capability to capture major observable phenomena in the curing process of polymeric composites under infinitesimal deformations and magnetic field.