Mechanical Behavior of Carbon Nanotube-Reinforced Polymer Composites

A new finite element (FE) modeling method has been developed to investigate how the electrical-mechanical-thermal behavior of carbon nanotube (CNT)–reinforced polymer composites is affected by electron tunneling distances, volume fraction, and physically realistic tube aspect ratios. A representative CNT polymer composite conductive path was chosen from a percolation analysis to establish the three-dimensional (3D) computational finite-element (FE) approach. A specialized Maxwell FE formulation with a Fermi-based tunneling resistance was then used to obtain current density evolution for different CNT/polymer dispersions and tunneling distances. Analyses based on thermoelectrical and electrothermomechanical FE approaches were used to understand how CNT-epoxy composites behave under electrothermomechanical loading conditions.

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Utilizing interfaces in carbon nanotube reinforced polymer composites for structural damping

Journal of Materials Science ◽

10.1007/s10853-006-0693-4 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 41 (23) ◽

pp. 7824-7829 ◽

Cited By ~ 70

Author(s):

Pulickel M. Ajayan ◽

Jonghwan Suhr ◽

Nikhil Koratkar

Keyword(s):

Carbon Nanotube ◽

Polymer Composites ◽

Structural Damping ◽

Reinforced Polymer

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Nondimensional Analysis of Interfacial Stresses of Wavy CNT/Polymer Composites

Volume 12: Mechanics of Solids, Structures and Fluids ◽

10.1115/imece2008-66428 ◽

2008 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

K. Yazdchi ◽

M. Salehi

Keyword(s):

Carbon Nanotube ◽

Polymer Composites ◽

Analytical Model ◽

Stress Transfer ◽

Interfacial Shear ◽

Linear Regression Method ◽

Shear Stresses ◽

Interfacial Stresses ◽

Single Walled Carbon Nanotube ◽

Reinforced Polymer

In this paper, with introducing a new simplified 3-D Representative Volume Element (RVE) for a wavy carbon nanotube (CNT), an analytical model has been developed to study the stress transfer in single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) reinforced polymer composites (NRPCs). The model is capable of predicting axial as well as interfacial shear stresses, along a wavy CNT embedded in a matrix. Based on the pullout modeling technique, the effects of waviness, wavelength and matrix modulus on axial and interfacial shear stresses have also been analyzed in details also using the statistical multiple non-linear regression method, the best-fitted functions for the interfacial stresses of CNT/polymer composites are obtained. The results of the present analytical model are in good agreements when compared with the corresponding results for straight NTs.

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Fiber Diameter-Dependent Elastic Deformation in Polymer Composites—A Numerical Study

Journal of Engineering Materials and Technology ◽

10.1115/1.4043766 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 142 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Nitin Garg ◽

Gurudutt Chandrashekar ◽

Farid Alisafaei ◽

Chung-Souk Han

Keyword(s):

Mechanical Behavior ◽

Polymer Composites ◽

Elastic Deformation ◽

Volume Fraction ◽

Fiber Diameter ◽

Scale Effects ◽

Numerical Study ◽

Length Scale ◽

Fiber Volume ◽

Reinforced Polymer

Abstract Microbeam bending and nano-indentation experiments illustrate that length scale-dependent elastic deformation can be significant in polymers at micron and submicron length scales. Such length scale effects in polymers should also affect the mechanical behavior of reinforced polymer composites, as particle sizes or diameters of fibers are typically in the micron range. Corresponding experiments on particle-reinforced polymer composites have shown increased stiffening with decreasing particle size at the same volume fraction. To examine a possible linkage between the size effects in neat polymers and polymer composites, a numerical study is pursued here. Based on a couple stress elasticity theory, a finite element approach for plane strain problems is applied to predict the mechanical behavior of fiber-reinforced epoxy composite materials at micrometer length scale. Numerical results show significant changes in the stress fields and illustrate that with a constant fiber volume fraction, the effective elastic modulus increases with decreasing fiber diameter. These results exhibit similar tendencies as in mechanical experiments of particle-reinforced polymer composites.

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