Mechanical properties of CNT–Bisphenol E cyanate ester-based CFRP nanocomposite developed through VARTM process

Abstract

This paper reports on the effect of multiwall carbon nanotubes (CNTs) without and with chemical functionalization on the mechanical properties of Bisphenol E cyanate ester resin (BECy) based carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) laminated composites. BECy with its low viscosity, low moisture uptake and superior mechanical properties is selected for its application in CFRP laminates through the cost-effective Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Moulding (VARTM) process. However, unlike CNT-epoxy-CFRP composites, processing and performance issues such as dispersion of CNTs, chemical bonding with resin, functionalization effects, effects on mechanical properties, etc. for BECy-CNT-CFRP composite system are not well reported. The objective of this study is to improve the mechanical properties of BECy resin with small additions of CNTs and functionalized CNTs in CFRP laminates. CNTs and fCNTs are infused into BECy using ultrasonication and standard mixing methods. Improvements in Young's modulus and strength in tension, compression, shear, flexure and interlaminar shear strength are analysed. It is observed that addition of 0.5 wt% CNTs effected for maximum mechanical properties of the resin and 1 wt% CNTs for the mechanical properties of CNT-CFRP nanocomposite. Further, improvements obtained with fCNTs are marginal. Dispersion behaviour and effect of CNTs/ fCNTs in load transfer corroborated with SEM pictures are presented. The enhanced mechanical properties realized in VARTM processing of BECy-CFRP laminate indicate clear advantage of CNT based modification of the process.

Molecular dynamics simulations on the effects of carbon nanotubes on mechanical properties of bisphenol E cyanate ester validating experimental results

“…Results obtained using the computational studies are compared with the results obtained from an experimental study carried out earlier by the authors. 2 Experimental studies show that significant enhancement in mechanical properties of BECy resin is achieved by dispersion of CNT in resin up to 0.5 wt.% of CNTs. The improvement in tensile strength and tensile modulus over neat resin for 0.5 wt.% are 42% and 11%, respectively.…”

“…27,29,30 Subba Rao et al. 2 studied the effect of different quantities of CNTs and fCNT(COOH) and reported significant enhancement of Young's modulus and tensile strength of the BECy resin system with 0.5 wt.% and 0.25 wt.%, respectively, and the results obtained are used for comparison with computational studies presented in this paper.…”

“…Previously, the authors have reported significant enhancements obtained by infusion of CNTs/fCNTs into BECy through experimental approach. 2 The objective of the present work is to develop a computational model and to study the effect of carbon nanotubes (CNTs/fCNTs) on the mechanical properties of BECy to validate the experimental studies. Such works on BECy resin are not reported much in published literature though they are reported for epoxy resin.…”

Effect of carbon nanofibre orientation on fatigue properties of carbon fibre-reinforced polymers

“…34 Further, it was shown e.g., that the orientation of nanofiller inside the specimen can enhance the conductivity and the mechanical properties of the composite: Addition and orientation of 0.3 wt% CNT lead to an increase of the interlaminar shear strength of the CFRP composite of 19.7% and the through-thickness conductivity increased by 38%. 33 While quasi-static mechanical properties of nano-modified composites were investigated extensively, 10,12,[35][36][37][38] much less is known about the performance of nano-reinforced CFRP under cyclic loading.…”

Comparison of two different carbon nanotubes-based hybrid multiscale composites with respect to mechanical and electrical properties

“…The initiation and propagation of cracks within composites under flexural or impact load occur at fibre/resin interface and in resin-rich region between the adjacent fibres, which greatly reduces their mechanical properties and environmental durability. The introduction of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) into the continuous fibre composites to construct the hybrid composites simultaneously containing micrometer and nanometer scale reinforcements has proven very promising for improving delamination resistance [1,2]. The mechanical, electrical and thermal properties of the resultant hybrid composites via nanocomposite matrix and nanocomposite preform routes have been, to different degree, enhanced through hybridising the reinforcing element [3][4][5][6].…”