Finite element and micromechanical modeling for investigating effective material properties of polymer–matrix nanocomposites with microfiber, reinforced by CNT arrays

Abstract

This paper is motivated by the lack of studies to investigate the effect of fiber reinforced CNT arrays on the material properties of nanocomposites. To make a comprehensive study, this research work is conducted in two ways. Firstly, the effect of microfiber as reinforcement on the effective material properties is investigated; secondly, the study is carried on as the microfibers reinforced by CNT arrays. In both above-mentioned approaches, the results are compared to the results of generalized mixture rule which is known as a widely used micro-mechanical model. The representative volume element (RVE) is considered as a well-known method to investigate the effect of adding CNT arrays on the skin of microfibers. The results show that Generalized Mixture Rule cannot properly predict the effects of changing the length and diameter of nanotubes on the effective properties of nanocomposites. The main objective of this research work is to determine the effects of increasing nanotubes on the elastic properties which are achieved using two aforementioned methods including FE and rule of mixture. It is also absorbed; effective properties of RVE can be improved by increasing the volume fraction, length and decreasing CNT arrays diameter.