The aim of this Faraday Partnership project is improve existing models of composite materials, comprising microspheres in a rubber substrate, to predict changes in effective bulk properties with applied quasistatic pressure and in response to dynamic acoustic and vibration fields. In particular the model development will assess potential explanations of the experimentally observed hysteresis in compression. Composite materials of this kind are used as coatings for submarines and this research will enhance understanding of their behaviour for that application.

Project staff and support

Gareth Jones (Postgraduate Faraday Associate, University of Oxford)
Jon Chapman (Academic Supervisor, University of Oxford)
Paul Chinnery (Industrial Supervisor, DSTL)
David Allwright (Technology Translator, Smith Institute)

This project is being carried out in the Oxford Centre for Industrial Applied Mathematics (OCIAM), in conjunction with DSTL. It is supported by an EPSRC industrial CASE award, made available through the Faraday Partnership for Industrial Mathematics. Start date: October 2003; duration: 3 years.