Mechanical properties of NiMnGa particles/epoxy composites

Epoxy matrix composites filled with NiMnGa particles are prepared by curing at room temperature. Based on the related loading-unloading experiment of NiMnGa particles/epoxy composites, the effects of NiMnGa particles' volume fraction on resin matrix composite's elastic and damping properties are analyzed via the mesomechanics in detail. Finite element models of unit cells are also established to calculate the composites' elastic properties. It is shown that along with the increasing of Ni-Mn-Ga volume fraction, the composite's tensile modulus and shear modulus increase and the Poisson ratio decreases. As the decreasing of particle major/minor axis ratio, the composite's longitudinal Poisson ratio increases, the longitudinal tensile modulus decreases, the transverse tensile modulus decreases to a valley value and then increases, and the shear modulus increases to a peak value and then decreases. The results of theoretical calculation, finite element simulation and experiments are in good agreement.