Mechanical Properties of MWCNT Reinforced Epoxy Nanocomposites: Experimental, Micromechanical and Numerical Study

摘要

Abstract The present work demonstrates the effect of multi‐walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) on mechanical properties, especially elastic modulus, stiffness, and strength of MWCNT/epoxy nanocomposites through experiments, micromechanics, and finite element analysis (FEA). Tensile specimens were fabricated with different MWCNT weight ratios (0, 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5) and quasi-static tensile tests were conducted. It was observed from experiments that the low amount of MWCNT additions (up to 1.0) as reinforcement in epoxy matrix enhanced the tensile modulus and ultimate tensile stress but reduced at 1.5 due to MWCNT agglomeration. The morphology of the nanocomposites obtained from SEM images complemented the mechanical properties obtained from the experiment of MWCNT/epoxycomposites. The effective elastic modulus of the nanocomposite was estimated by Digimat-FE software and in-house MATLAB code using the Mori–Tanaka approach. MWCNT/epoxy nanocomposite was modelled using a cubic representative volume element (RVE) in Digimat-FE. The effects of CNT percentage, interphase, waviness, and agglomerations were studied systematically to demonstrate their effect on the effective elastic modulus. The overall moduli obtained from experimental, analytical and numerical analyses matched with reasonable agreements.