Numerical simulations of stick percolation: Application to the study of structured magnetorheologial elastomers

TL;DR

This study uses Monte Carlo simulations to analyze how structural parameters influence percolation in composites with one-dimensional conductive elements, revealing key factors for achieving electrical anisotropy in elastomeric materials.

Contribution

The paper introduces a computational algorithm to study anisotropic percolation in stick systems, extending theoretical results to practical, experimentally relevant composite materials.

Findings

Percolation anisotropy depends mainly on angular distribution and stick length.

A wide parameter range allows reliable anisotropic percolation in composites.

Simulation results guide experimental design for anisotropic conductive materials.

Abstract

In this article we explore how structural parameters of composites filled with one-dimensional, electrically conducting elements (such as sticks, needles, chains, or rods) affect the percolation properties of the system. To this end, we perform Monte Carlo simulations of asymmetric two-dimensional stick systems with anisotropic alignments. We compute the percolation probability functions in the direction of preferential orientation of the percolating objects and in the orthogonal direction, as functions of the experimental structural parameters. Among these, we considered the average length of the sticks, the standard deviation of the length distribution, and the standard deviation of the angular distribution. We developed a computer algorithm capable of reproducing and verifying known theoretical results for isotropic networks and which allows us to go beyond and study anisotropic systems of experimental interest. Our research shows that the total electrical anisotropy, considered as a direct consequence of the percolation anisotropy, depends mainly on the standard deviation of the angular distribution and on the average length of the sticks. A conclusion of practical interest is that we find that there is a wide and well-defined range of values for the mentioned parameters for which it is possible to obtain reliable anisotropic percolation under relatively accessible experimental conditions when considering composites formed by dispersions of sticks, oriented in elastomeric matrices.