Materials Science and Engineering A289 (2000) 30 – 33

www.elsevier.com/locate/msea

On the rule of mixtures for the hardness of particle reinforced

composites
Hyoung Seop Kim *
Department of Metallurgical Engineering and RASOM ERC, Chungnam National Uni6ersity, Taejon 305 -764, South Korea

Received 11 January 2000; received in revised form 28 March 2000

Abstract

The hardness variations with the volume fraction of the hard particle in the particle reinforced composite have been analysed
using several models for a rule of mixtures and finite element method. The stress states are found to be nearly iso-strain at high
volume fraction of the hard particle and iso-stress at low volume fraction of the particle. © 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights
reserved.

Keywords: Hardness; Particle reinforced composites; Rule of mixtures; Finite element method

1. Introduction
The concept of mixtures or composites with homoge-
neously distributed particles in the matrix can be ap-
plied to not only conventional composites and
nanocomposites, such as SiC reinforced nanocrystalline
Al alloys [1] and partially crystallised amorphous alloys
[2], but also even nanocrystalline materials composed of
grain interiors and grain boundaries [3].
Predicting the overall mechanical properties of the
composite is very important for material design and
applications. There have been many attempts to corre-
late the overall mechanical properties of the composite
and the properties of its constitutes: for example, the
self-consistent variation methods [4,5], mean-field theo-
ries [6], shear-lag theory [7], finite element method
(FEM) [8,9] and a rule of mixtures (ROM) [10–12].
Among them, the simplest and intuitive method for the
estimation of the effective mechanical properties in
terms of its constitutes is the ROM. Therefore, al-
though the FEM gives satisfactory results for problems
with complex geometry and the nonlinearlity of the
material properties, the ROM as a simple and fast
solution for the simplified model is also useful.
* Tel.: +82-42-8216596; fax: + 82-42-8229401.
E-mail address: hskim@cnu.ac.kr (H.S. Kim)
For the ROM, Voigt model [10] based on the equal
strain assumption and Reuss model [11] based on the
equal stress assumption have been widely employed.
However, most of the models are derived for elastic
properties. In addition, the correlation between the
effective hardness of the composite, which is the easiest
mechanical property obtained by simple testing, and
the hardness values of its constituent phases is not well
established. Therefore, there is still argument about the
validity of the ROM in composites with hard particles,
especially for plastic properties [13]. Schlesinger et al.
[14] found for Ni–Al2O3 system that little variation of
hardness as the metal volume fraction was reduced
from 1 to a certain threshold value and a high variation
of hardness below the threshold metal volume fraction.
Later, Scanlon and Cammarata [15] observed similar
nanoindentation hardness and Knoop hardness trends
for the nanocomposite Ag–Al2O3 and the Fe–SiO2 film
systems and suggested the discontinuity was a result of
a change in deformation mechanism as the threshold
volume fraction for the softer phase was crossed. Actu-
ally the idea of the percolation threshold of the metal,
which represents the volume fraction of the metal be-
low which the metallic phase is in the form of isolated
metal particles and above which the metal granules
form an interconnected network, was introduced to
explain the change by many order of magnitude of the
electrical resistivity as the percolation threshold is

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 H.S. Kim / Materials Science and Engineering A289 (2000) 30–33
crossed. Greer [13] assumed that the hardness of the
devitrified nanocomposites is simply that of the soft
matrix. However, there is no apparent reason why
mechanical properties, especially hardness, should be
related with the percolation threshold like the electrical
resistivity.
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effec-
tive hardness of the particle distributed composite by
means of the ROM and to explain the experimental
phenomenon that little variation of hardness of the
particle reinforced composites.
2. Rule of mixtures
Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram showing (a) iso-
stress (Reuss) model and (b) iso-strain (Voigt) model.
The ROMs, such as the equal strain treatment which is
a upper bound, Eq. (1), and the equal stress treatment
which is a lower bound, Eq. (2), can be used for the
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram showing (a) iso-strain and (b) iso-stress
models.
Fig. 2. A comparison of the stress–strain curves of the Ag – Ni
composites with various volume fractions of the Ni particles calcu-
lated by the FEM of the unit cell model.
31
effective hardness H( of the composite as in the analysis
of elastic modulus in elasticity analysis.
H( up = fhHh + fsHs (1)
H( low = ( fh/Hh + fs/Hs) − 1 (2)
where, Hh and Hs are the hardness values of hard and
soft phases, and fh and fs are the volume fractions of
hard and soft phases, respectively. The subscripts up
and low in H( represent the upper bound and the lower
bound of hardness, respectively.
In order to assess the validity of the above ROMs,
the calculated effective hardness values using Eqs. (1)
and (2) with volume fraction of the particles need to be
compared with the experimental results. However, in
the real experiments it is hardly possible to prepare the
same state of the matrix in the specimens regardless of
the volume fraction of the particles in case the
size of the particles remain the same. In other
words, for example, if the volume fraction of the parti-
cles increases, the mean dislocation free path
decreases. Then, due to the Orowan mechanism operat-
ing, the strengthening of the matrix is not the same as
those with different volume fractions of the particles
even if the initial states of the matrix materials are the
same. In another example of nanocomposite granular
metal thin films [14], the grain size of the granular
metal varies with volume fraction of the metal.
Because the present aim is to assess the validity of the
ROMs excluding the effects of microstructural
factors, the published experimental data are not ade-
quate for this purpose. Therefore, as an alternative
way, the calculated results using ROM are compared
with the results using the FEM assuming that the
matrix and the particles exhibit the same mechanical
properties regardless of the volume fraction of each
phase, instead.
The elasto-plastic finite element analysis (FEA) for
the conventional unit cell model of the uniaxial com-
pression of the composites with homogeneously dis-
tributed second particles has been carried out for the
current purpose. The details of the finite element calcu-
lation can be found elsewhere [1]. An example of the
composite Ag–Ni [9] (Young’s modulus, E (Ni) =114
GPa, E (Ag) = 82.7 GPa, Poisson’s ratio, n (Ni) =0.312,
n (Ag) = 0.367, and yield strength, s (Ni)0 = 193 MPa,
s (Ag)
0 = 64 MPa) has been selected to compare the re-
sults of the FEM with those of the ROMs. The effect of
the model size (that is, the particle size and the inter-
particle spacing) was ignored. Since the yield stress of
metal cold worked by 8% strain is related with the
Vickers hardness value [17], stress values at 8% strain
from the stress–strain curves obtained by the FEA are
taken as hardness values. The hardness values of Ag
and Ni corresponding to the stress–strain curves of
them [9], are 135 and 253 MPa, respectively.
32 H.S. Kim / Materials Science and Engineering A289 (2000) 30–33
Fig. 3. Normalised hardness of the composites with particles as a
function of the volume fraction of hard particles, fh. The symbols and
the lines are calculated results by the FEM and ROMs, respectively.
Fig. 4. A schematic diagram showing an indenting behaviour of
particulate composites.
3. Results and discussion
Fig. 2 shows a comparison of the stress – strain curves
of the Ag–Ni composites with various volume fractions
of the Ni particles calculated by the FEM of the unit
cell model. The stress levels increases with the volume
fraction of the Ni particles. The stress values at strain
of 0.8% in this figure are considered as hardness values
as described previously.
Fig. 3 shows the normalised hardness, (H( − Hs)/
(Hh − Hs), curves calculated by means of the ROMs,
Eqs. (1) and (2), and the finite element analysis of the
Ag–Ni composite. The normalised hardness of
the composite lies between 1 for full hard phase and 0
for full soft phase. Because Eqs. (1) and (2) represent
the upper and lower bounds, respectively, the calculated
result of Eq. (1) is always higher than that of Eq. (2).
The actual stress states in the composite
might be within the two limits depending on
geometric conditions because some part of the com-
posite is aligned parallel to the loading direction, and
some part is aligned normal to the loading direction,
see Fig. 1.
It can be found from Fig. 3 that the FEA results fit
better with the iso-strain curve except at low volume
fraction of hard particles where the FEA results are
near the iso-stress curve. This can be explained from
the fact that the deformation of the soft matrix is larger
than that of the hard particle. That is, as the compres-
sion proceeds at high volume fraction of the hard
particles the distance between the particles is getting
closer, load is transferred to the adjacent particle along
the loading direction and the particles can be deformed.
On the other hand, at low volume fraction of hard
particles the deformation occurred mainly in the soft
matrix with little deformation of the hard particles.
This inhomogeneous deformation which main deforma-
tion occurs in the matrix is much more apparent for the
indentation of the composite than the uniaxial com-
pression. Fig. 4 shows a schematic diagram of the load
transfer direction in the indentation test. Because the
loading direction is mainly normal to the indenter
surface, the stress state might be similar to the iso-
stress condition rather than the iso-strain condition.
The extreme case of this inhomogeneous deformation is
‘wet sand effect’; that is only the soft material sur-
rounding the hard particle deforms. In this case, it
might be thought that the effective hardness of the
particulate reinforced composite is the same as the
hardness of the soft matrix [13,16]. This situation can
be analysed using the following approximation of the
iso-stress case,
HhHs H
H( low = : s (3)
fhHs + fsHh fs
when Hh  Hs and fh  fs.
Eq. (3) indicates that the effective hardness of the
particulate reinforced composite can be approximated
to that of the soft matrix only when the hardness of the
hard particle is much higher than that of the soft matrix
(Hh  Hs) and the volume fraction of the particle is
very low (fs : 1). Otherwise, this approximation, Eq.
(3), is not satisfied.
In order to investigate the effect of the relative
hardness values between the matrix and the particle on
the effective hardness of the composite, a parametric
study was accomplished based on the iso-stress condi-
tion (Eq. (2)), see Fig. 5. It can be apparently shown
that as the relative hardness ratio (Hh/Hs) is high, the
hardness of the composite approaches that of the soft
matrix especially at low volume fraction of the hard
particle. Therefore, it is not a unacceptable statement
that the hardness values in the Ag–Al2O3 and the
nanocrystalline Al particle–amorphous Al alloy matrix
composites are determined approximately by only the
soft phases [13,16].
 H.S. Kim / Materials Science and Engineering A289 (2000) 30–33
Fig. 5. Normalised hardness of the composites with particles as a
function of the volume fraction of particles, fh, with various hardness
ratios of soft and hard phases.
4. Concluding remarks
In conclusion, the hardness variations with the vol-
ume fraction of the hard particle in the particle rein-
forced composite have been analysed using several
models for a rule of mixtures and the calculated results
are compared with those of the finite element analysis.
Comparison between the results from ROMs and FEA
shows the stress states are nearly iso-strain at high
volume fraction of the hard particle and iso-stress at
low volume fraction of the particle. A model which
demonstrates the iso-stress condition is dominant dur-
ing the indenting process is proposed. An explanation
33
for the experimental results and interpretation that the
hardness of the particle reinforced composite is similar
to that of the soft matrix, especially at high volume
fraction of the particle, is presented using the iso-stress
model.
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