Development of quantitative indices for evaluating the degree of dispersion of additives in compounded materials using computer experiments

Abstract

To study and propose some suitable quantitative indices for evaluating the degree of dispersion of single and binary additives in compounded materials and ordered mixtures. The indices of interest are the degree of mixedness, the area-based and count-based fractal dimensions and the coordination number. Computer simulations are used to simulate various ideal cases of dispersion and their combination in the single additive systems. For the binary systems, the concentration ratio, the particle size ratio and the adhesion probability of B onto A are also varied. It is found that both the area-based and count-based fractal dimensions do not change when the particle size ratio increases, so they are suitable quantitative indices for evaluating the degree of dispersion of both single and binary additives systems. The investigation also shows how these indices can be used to characterize the type of dispersion and estimate the adhesion probability.