MODELING AND EXPERIMENTAL VALIDATION OF THE ELASTIC MODULUS OF POLYSULFONE MEMBRANES REINFORCED WITH CELLULOSE NANOFIBERS

Polymeric nanofilled membranes are required to have good mechanical properties in addition to having proper filtration function. Their mechanical properties are highly influenced by the content and distribution of nanofillers and by the porosity and pore morphology. This study focuses on computational modeling and experimental validation of the effective elastic modulus of the fabricated polysulfone membranes reinforced with different contents of cellulose nanofibers. Average cross-section porosities are investigated using the image processing method. The pore morphology factor, in the power law relation for the porosity effect, is also investigated through a finite element model. To characterize the instantaneous stiffnesses and transition temperatures for pristine nonporous matrix and for nanofilled porous membranes, the effective storage modulus was characterized through dynamic mechanical analysis for a wide range of temperatures. Our computational model predictions for different membrane microstructures are found to be in good agreement with the experimentally measured values.