ABSTRACT
Composite materials often contain polymer as one of the two phases, such as, dispersed phase and matrix phase. The polymeric phase generally imparts viscoelastic behavior to the composite. For example, the ethylene-propylene-diene monomer rubber is being increasingly used in many applications because of its excellent oxidation resistance and electrical properties. This chapter describes the macroscopic dynamic behavior of viscoelastic composites in terms of the effective complex moduli. The elastic-viscoelastic correspondence principle states that the expressions for the effective complex moduli of a viscoelastic heterogeneous material can be obtained from the corresponding expressions for the effective elastic moduli of an associated heterogeneous elastic material simply by replacing phase elastic moduli by phase complex moduli. Using the elastic-viscoelastic correspondence principle, the expressions for the effective elastic moduli of particulate composites can be converted into the corresponding expressions for the complex moduli of viscoelastic particulate composites.
