Effect of the adhesion interaction and the degree of filling on the internal stresses in finely divided crystalline fillers of epoxy composites

Two kinds of model composite materials with finely divided (1) crystal fillers—LiF or polyethylene-filled epoxy resin cured by polyethylenepolyamine — are investigated by X-ray diffractometry. It is found that tensile stresses arise in LiF crystals, which show a strong adhesion interaction with the binder, for all degrees of filling (from =2.2 to =74 vol.%) examined. Their values remain constant up to a degree of filling at which the boundary layers come into contact with one another. Then, the inner stresses decrease with increasing . In the crystalline regions of polyethylene, where the adhesion between the binder and crystals is weak, the inner stresses are compressive. It is shown that the thickness of the boundary layer of the matrix on the surface of filler particles can be evaluated by the method used.Institute of Polymer Mechanics, Latvian University, Riga, LV-1006 Latvia. Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 35, No. 6, pp. 807–820, November–December, 1999.