Effect of interface energy on size-dependent effective dynamic properties of nanocomposites with coated nano-fibers

In nanocomposites, coated nano-fibers are often used to obtain good performance, and the high interface-to-volume ratio shows great effect on the macroscopic effective properties of nanocomposites. In this study, the effect of interface energy around the unidirectional coated nanofibers on the effective dynamic effective properties is explicitly addressed by effective medium method and wave function expansion method. The multiple scattering resulting from the series coating nano-fibers is reduced to the problem of one typical nano-fiber in the effective medium. The dynamic effective shear modulus is obtained on the basis of the derived imperfect interface conditions. Analyses show that the effect of the interface properties on the dynamic effective shear modulus is significantly related to the coating layer, the nano-fiber, and the wave frequency. Due to the existence of softer coating layers, the effect of the interfaces around the layers increases greatly. Comparison with the existing results is also illustrated in the numerical examples.