Evaluation of Elastic Properties for a Nanocomposite (Reinforced with SWCNT Agglomerates) Utilizing a Representative Volume Element

Jalan, SK and Nageswara Rao, B and Narayana Murty, SVS and Gopalakrishnan, S (2019) Evaluation of Elastic Properties for a Nanocomposite (Reinforced with SWCNT Agglomerates) Utilizing a Representative Volume Element. In: Transactions of the Indian Institute of Metals, 72 (4). pp. 951-967.

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Abstract

Single-wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) has very high measured elastic modulus. But nanocomposites manufactured using SWCNT does not exhibit dramatic increase in the elastic modulus due to various reasons. One of the defects noticed during the manufacturing of nanocomposites is the agglomeration of SWCNT. A novel methodology is proposed in the present paper to model the SWCNT agglomerates. Subsequently, finite element model of representative volume element (RVE) of nanocomposite is generated using validated boundary conditions and the axial elastic modulus is estimated, which is found to be in close agreement with the experimental results. The validated finite element model is used to estimate other elastic properties of nanocomposites, which can avoid costly experiments. Parametric study is carried out to understand the effect of length, diameter of SWCNT agglomerates and chirality of SWCNT on the elastic properties of nanocomposite. Finally, empirical relations are given to estimate all the elastic moduli of RVE if the diameter (hence chirality) of SWCNT and diameter of SWCNT agglomerates are measured after manufacturing nanocomposite with PVA matrix. The methodology described here can be easily extended for the nanocomposite with any other matrix. © 2019, The Indian Institute of Metals - IIM.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Transactions of the Indian Institute of Metals
Publisher:	Springer
Additional Information:	The copyright for this article belongs to Springer.
Keywords:	Elasticity; Finite element analysis (FEA); Nanostructures
Department/Centre:	Division of Mechanical Sciences > Aerospace Engineering(Formerly Aeronautical Engineering)
Date Deposited:	13 Dec 2022 05:26
Last Modified:	13 Dec 2022 05:26
URI:	https://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/78350

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