Anand M. Hunashyal

Experimental investigation of the effect of carbon nanotubes and carbon fibres on the behaviour of plain cement composite beams

In this article, the behaviour of reinforced cement composite beams with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and carbon fibres (CFs) is investigated. The percentage of CFs was fixed at 0.25 wt% of cement, while the percentage of MWCNTs was varied from 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1 wt% of cement. Dispersion of both MWCNTs and CFs was carried out using ultrasonic energy. Composite beams were tested under flexure in order to evaluate their mechanical properties such as flexural strength, toughness and ductility. These results were then compared with the results of plain cement control beams. The present work also investigates the optimum percentage of fibres that gives the best results both in terms of enhanced properties and economy.

Studies on the effect of multi-walled carbon nanotube-reinforced polymer-based nano-composites using finite element analysis software tool

This article confirms experimental results by finite element analysis. The study includes meshing the specimen of size 40 × 12 × 6 mm3. The model is constructed in DesignModeler (ANSYS Workbench). Multi-walled carbon nanotubes are aligned in different angles to correlate the experimental results. The modelling method employed for analysis is based on weight ratio. The proportion of multi-walled carbon nanotubes is 0.25%, 0.5%, 0.75% and 1% by weight of polymer matrix (epoxy resin) for different specimens. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes are dispersed in epoxy matrix using ultrasonic energy. Composite beams were tested under flexure in order to evaluate their mechanical property such as load–deflection criteria by three-point bending test. Finite element method results were in close agreement with the experimental outcomes with different orientation of multi-walled carbon nanotubes into the matrix considered.

Experimental Investigation on the Effect of Titanium dioxide and Carbon fibers on the Mechanical and Microstructural Properties of Cement Beams

This paper investigates the behaviour of cement composite beams reinforced with TiO2 and CFs. TiO2 was varied at 0.1% and 0.5% by weight of cement and that of CFs was fixed at 0.25%. Dispersion of TiO2 and CFs was carried out using ultrasonicator. Flexural test was conducted on cement beams with TiO2 and CFs. Microstructural tests like scanning electron microscope and thermo gravimetric analysis were conducted on the specimen to evaluate the proper dispersion and bonding of CFs with cement matrix.