Experimental Values for the Elastic Constants of a Particulate-Filled Glassy Polymer

Young's modu lus and Poisso n's ratio have been measured simultaneously on a seri es of parti c ula te composites containing vo lume fractions of fill er up to 0.50. The co mposites consisted of small glass spheres im bedded in a ri gid e poxy polyme r matrix. The measured va lues were com pared with theOl·etica l values ca lc ulated from c urrent theories. A recentl y generalized and simplified vers ion of van der Poel' s theory provided the bes t agreement. It predicted va lues of Young's modu lus for composites with fill er volume fractions up to 0.35. Meas ured valu es of Poisson's ratio exhibited sca ttering, but we re consistent with values calculated from van der Poel' s theory.