Numerical analysis of wood-high-density polyethylene composites: A hyperelastic approach

Abstract

The application of a hyperelastic approach to simulate the tensile mechanical behavior of wood fiber/polymer composites is proposed. This research was conducted with the purpose of selecting the theoretical model that best fits the experimental data for use in the finite element model. The analyses by the four strain energy density functions (Polynomial, Ogden, Yeoh, and Marlow models) and the Cauchy-Green tensor invariants were used as the theoretical models. The experimental mechanical behavior of three wood fiber/polymer composites formulated with high-density polyethylene as the polymer matrix, and pine, cherry, and walnut sawdust as the fillers, at a concentration of 40 wt%, was evaluated. Experimental data showed that with filler addition, the tensile modulus of the high-density polyethylene matrix increased almost 131% regarding the neat high-density polyethylene; however, no significant differences were found respecting the kind of sawdust. Nevertheless, it was found that the elongation (%) at break was higher when walnut sawdust was employed. As for the strain energy density function analyses, the best approximation to the experimental data was achieved by the Marlow model, because this model only demands the sum of the principal extension ratios for a polymer-based material, I₁. The numerical results showed that the proposed finite element model predicts the response with less than 1% error, regarding the experimental data, and consequently the use of the finite element models was simplified for the prediction of the tensile mechanical behavior of this kind of composites.