Response of mode II interlaminar fracture toughness of composite laminates with carbon nanotubes interlayer

摘要

Aggregation is usually unavoidable for the carbon nanotubes due to the high surface free energy. In this paper, an attempt was carried out to investigate the effects of the nanotube's films as ply interfaces on the mode II interlaminar fracture toughness. The nanotubes were distributed into absolute ethyl alcohol solvent and acted as core solutions. A polymer, Poly(methylmethacrylate)(PMMA), was dissolved in solvent and acted as shell solutions. Then, the core and shell solutions were electrospun into compound nanofibers by use of a co-axial electrospinning to obtain a second distribution for the carbon nanotubes. The compound nanofibers were collected as thin films in a reasonable thickness and were inserted into the middle interface of a composite laminate. For comparison, the core solutions were sprayed directly onto the surface of the middle ply of the preformed laminates. End notched flexure (ENF) test was applied to investigate the effect of the nanotubes in different forms on the interlaminar fracture toughness of the cured laminates. Scanning electronic microscope (SEM) was used to analyze the fracture mechanics of the ENF specimens. Testing results have shown that the nanotubes have significant reinforcement effect on the interlaminar fracture toughness for those studied cases in this research. SEM analysis of the fracture surface of the ENF specimens has indicated that the polymer nanofibers and nanotubes have a good consistency with the matrix resin of the laminates.