The Distribution of Interparticle Distance and its Application in Finite- Element Modelling of Composite Materials

The distribution of interparticle distance, based on a Voronoi tessellation, is found approximately for a hard-core Gibbs process. The moments of this distribution are then used as input for finite-element analysis of the region surrounding a single filler sphere within a composite material. Statistical analysis provides close bounds for overall elastic properties of the material. Results from finite-element analysis can therefore be applied to real composite materials; reasonable agreement is found with a particular set of experimental data.