The Effect of Carbon Nanotube Aspect Ratio on Reinforcement Efficiency in Nanocomposites

The superior mechanical properties of Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are unusually high stiffness, strength and resilience, and may improve the property of materials by reinforcing in nanocomposites. Calculating the effective material properties of such nanoscale materials are very important.This paper includes the study of the tensile behavior of embedded carbon nanotubes(CNTs) in a polymer matrix. The interactions between fiber and matrix were simulated as van der Waals (vdW) forces. A 3D finite element model of a unit cell consisting of carbon nanotubes, inter-phase and surrounding polymer is modeled. In order to obtain the influence of unit cell, tensile load is applied for longitudinal Young's modulus of the cell. It is carried out to investigate the effect of CNT's aspect ratio on reinforcement. It is found that improvement in the Young's modulus of CNT-composite is negligible for aspect ratio (length / diameter) smaller than 8. Also, it is found that the rate of enhancement in reinforcement is very high via lower values of CNT’s aspect ratio and this rate becomes much less for larger aspect ratio of CNT’s. When aspect ratio of CNTs in nanocomposites is increase, the efficiency of load transfer will increase dramatically. At last, stress–strain curves become less non-linear and trends become more similar in larger aspect ratio of CNTs

کلیدواژه ها:

Nanotubes ، Nanocomposite ، Mechanical properties ، Aspect Ratio