J. Srinivas

Free vibration, bending and buckling of a FG-CNT reinforced composite beam: Comparative analysis with hybrid laminated composite beam

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to perform a numerical analysis on the static and dynamic behaviors of beams made up of functionally graded carbon nanotube (FG-CNT) reinforced polymer and hybrid laminated composite containing the layers of carbon reinforced polymer with CNT. Conventional fibers have higher density as compared to carbon nanotubes (CNTs), thus insertion of FG-CNT reinforced polymer layer in fiber reinforced composite (FRC) structures makes them sustainable candidate for weight critical applications. Design/methodology/approach In this context, stress and strain formulations of a multi-layer composite system is determined with the help of Timoshenko hypothesis and then the principle of virtual work is employed to derive the governing equations of motion. Herein, extended rule of mixture and conventional micromechanics relations are used to evaluate the material properties of carbon nanotube reinforced composite (CNTRC) layer and FRC layer, respectively. A generalized eigenvalue problem is formulated using finite element approach and is solved for single layer FG-CNTRC beam and multi-layer laminated hybrid composite beam by a user-interactive MATLAB code. Findings First, the natural frequencies of FG-CNTRC beam are computed and compared with previously available results as well as with Ritz approximation outcomes. Further, free vibration, bending, and buckling analysis is carried out for FG-CNTRC beam to interpret the effect of different CNT volume fraction, number of walls in nanotube, distribution profiles, boundary conditions, and beam-slenderness ratios. Originality/value A free vibration analysis of hybrid laminated composite beam with two different layer stacking sequence is performed to present the advantages of hybrid laminated beam over the conventional FRC beam.

Elastic behavior of CNT-reinforced polymer composites with discontinuities in CNT configurations

A numerical study has been made towards the effective elastic properties estimation of carbon nanotubes and carbon nanotube reinforced composite using finite element modelling (FEM). First, the elastic properties of Carbon nanotube (CNT) were predicted by considering that carbon atoms as nodes and carbon-carbon bonds as beam elements with linear and isotropic behaviour. It was observed that elastic properties of CNT predicted by FE analysis were in good agreement with previous data. Carbon atom vacancy defects were also included to investigate the adverse effect on elastic modulus of SWCNTs. To explore the macroscopic elastic behaviour of CNT in a finite densely packed polymer resin, a representative volume element (RVE) was selected instead of whole composite material in which the polymer resin was modelled as continuum material while CNT as an equivalent long fibre. FE results of RVE manifest that the CNT volume fraction and waviness have significant effect on elastic modulus of CNT reinforced polymer composite. An analytical formulation in terms of elastic properties and waviness ratio was also introduced in this study for waviness analysis. Moreover, the elastic properties of wavy CNT reinforced composite was compared with analytical outcomes. We extended present RVE model to incorporate the effects of CNTs agglomeration on the elastic behaviour of CNT-reinforced polymer composites. It was observed that anticipated elastic results not only depended on the volume fraction of CNTs, but also on the CNTs geometry, waviness and agglomeration.

Parametric studies on effective elastic modulus of nano-clay/polymer composites

This paper proposes a methodology of finding effective elastic properties of nanoclay-reinforced polymer composites with aligned clay particles. When interphase regions exist between nanoclay platelets and polymer, numerical homogenization is initially required to identify the properties of effective particle consisting of both clay and interface regions. Once the elastic properties of equivalent particle are obtained, Mori-Tanaka approach is employed to identify all the effective properties of resultant composite. The methodology is implemented with a modular based computer program developed in MATLAB and the variation of longitudinal modulus as a function of weight fraction of nanoclay, aspect ratio of fibers, number of stacks, nanoclay volume fraction etc is reported. The empirical results are validated with a numerical model developed in ANSYS using a representative volume element for prediction of the elastic modulus. Results are illustrated with two cases of exfoliated morphology.

Studies on Effective Elastic Properties of CNT/Nano-Clay Reinforced Polymer Hybrid Composite

This paper presents a computational approach to predict elastic propertiesof hybrid nanocomposite material prepared by adding nano-clayplatelets to conventional CNT-reinforced epoxy system. In comparison to polymers alone/single-fiber reinforced polymers, if an additional fiber is added to the composite structure, it was found a drastic improvement in resultant properties. In this regard, effective elastic moduli of a hybrid nano composite are determined by using finite element (FE) model with square representative volume element (RVE). Continuum mechanics based homogenization of the nano-filler reinforced composite is considered for evaluating the volumetric average of the stresses and the strains under different periodic boundary conditions.A three phase Halpin-Tsai approach is selected to obtain the analytical result based on micromechanical modeling. The effect of the volume fractions of CNTs and nano-clay platelets on the mechanical behavior is studied. Two different RVEs of nano-clay platelets were used to investigate the influence of nano-filler geometry on composite properties. The combination of high aspect ratio of CNTs and larger surface area of clay platelets contribute to the stiffening effect of the hybrid samples. Results of analysis are validated with Halpin-Tsai empirical formulae.