Tailoring Material Stiffness by Filler Particle Organization.

In the context of emerging methods to control particle organization in particle-matrix composite materials, we explore, using finite element analysis, how to modulate the material bulk mechanical stiffness. Compared to a composite containing randomly distributed particles, material stiffness is enhanced 100-fold when filler particles are aligned into linear chains lying parallel to the loading direction. In contrast, chains aligned perpendicular to that direction produce negligible stiffness change.