The paper deals with the assessment of the influence of morphological parameters of a 2Drandom short fibre composite on its effective elastic properties. A double-scale 2D finiteelement approach is used and periodic representative volume elements are generatedaccording to the model with an n-order approximate geometry. This one isa recent and powerful tool to generate meshes in the context of complex microstructuressuch as random fibre composites. Impact of three morphological features namely, aspectratio, tortuosity of fibres and width of the interphase area, is investigated. Numericalresults are provided for several contrasts of properties and volume fractions of fibres.

This paper presents the preparation of multi-walled carbone nanotubes (CNTs) and CdS nanoparticles based hybrid materials. We aim at comparing two kinds of CNTs’ functionalization by thiol groups in order to demonstrate that the surface chemistry done on the CNTs can direct the morphology of the nanohybrids. Indeed, strong oxidation of CNTs leads to shorter nanotubes opened at their ends, allowing the grafting of mercaptotriethoxysilane whereas the generation of diazonium salts in presence of pristine nanotubes should lead to the functionalization of the whole lateral surface of the nanotubes. CdS nanoparticles can then be anchored to thiol groups, leading to interesting hybrid precursors for photovoltaic applications.

On one hand, the experimental crystallographic data of Chang andRead and the theoretical ones of Lieberman et al. permit a physicalapproach of the martensitic transformation of Au–47.5% at. Cd. On theother hand, an extension to the AuCd crystallographic system of the simplemicromechanical model, developed by Lexcellent et al. for CuZnAlsingle crystals, allows an efficient modelling of the tension-compressionand pure tension tests, performed on single crystals by Nakanishi et al. in the pseudoelastic range.