Abstract
In carbon nanotube (CNT)-reinforced polymer matrix composites, the CNT–matrix interphase and the random CNT waviness considerably influence the mechanical properties of the composites. The effect is multiscale through the CNT–matrix interphase interaction mechanisms. This chapter presents an effective multiscale method to elucidate such mechanism. The contributions of interphase properties and CNT waviness on the elastic properties of CNT composites are discussed in detail. This includes a method for characterizing the CNT waviness, validated by experimental measurement of multiwalled CNT composites, and an integration of the method with the van der Waals (vdW) gap interphase, the dense interphase, and the randomly distributed CNT waviness. The method is then coupled with conventional finite element code commercially available to predict the macroscopic properties of the CNT composites with nanoscopic resolution. The investigation in this chapter concludes that with the same volume fraction, increasing the waviness and the diameter of CNTs reduce the composite Young’s modulus, and that ignoring either may bring about erroneous characterizations, but that in some circumstances the vdW gap interphase and the dense interphase can be ignored.
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