Abstract
In this study, the damage analysis of hybrid carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composited with vertically aligned zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires is investigated numerically. The effect of growing nanowires on improving the interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) of the hybrid structures is explored. The multi-scale model developed to make a bridge between the materials with different length scales available in the hybrid structures, including micro-scale, meso-scale, and macros-scale. The vertically aligned ZnO nanowires on the lamina and embedded in the epoxy matrix creates an enhancement layer. The effective material properties of this layer are evaluated at micro-scale by homogenization analysis. The cohesive zone method is employed in the meso-scale to explore the interfacial behavior and delamination (interlaminar damage) between the homogenized stacking layer and the CFRP lamina. Besides, the strain-based failure criterion is implemented at the macro-scale to investigate the progressive damage of fiber and matrix in CFRP plies. This analysis is programmed in user-defined subroutine linked to ABAQUS finite element software. The three-dimensional hybrid composite short beam in the three-point bending load is simulated in ABAQUS Explicit packager, and the ILSS is obtained. The damage behavior of hybrid composite is compared to the bare CFRP beam. The results indicate that aligning nanowires on the plies improves the performance of CFRP composites.
