Abstract
Hybrid composites with high strength to weight ratio are very important in structural applications. An extensive research is being carried out to enhance the mechanical properties of composites by incorporating micro and nanoscale reinforcements. The nanoreinforcements provide unique strengthening mechanisms that result in an overall high mechanical performance of composites. In order to investigate the effect of nanoreinforcements on the mechanical properties of fiber reinforced composites a novel multiscale composites of Kevlar fibers and carbon nanotubes in epoxy matrix were prepared in this research. A combination of hand layup and vacuum bagging technique was used to manufacture multiscale composites. Nanotubes at three different concentrations, i.e. 0.33wt%, 0.66wt% and 0.99wt% were incorporated after their functionalization through ultraviolet ozone-treatment to improve their interfacial interaction with epoxy matrix. The microstructural and mechanical property characterization of multiscale composites was performed by optical and electron microscopy, and tensile, hardness and interlaminar shear testing. An increase of ~45% in tensile strength was noted by incorporating 0.99wt% of nanotubes while the improvements of ~60% in hardness and ~13% rise in interlaminar shear strength were observed. The improved mechanical performance owes to the uniform dispersion of nanotubes along with their adherence to nanotubes promoting anchoring effect between fibers and matrix.
Highlights
The advent of nanotechnology has revolutionized the field of composites by introducing a novel class of nanocomposites, which contain the reinforcement with one of its dimensions less than 100nm
The incorporation of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) up to 0.99wt% in Kevlar fiber epoxy matrix composites increased the mechanical performance of novel multiscale composites
In comparison to reference composite without nanoreinforcement, the multiscale composites containing 0.99wt% MWCNTs showed the rises in tensile strength, hardness and interlaminar shear strength up to 45%, 60% and 13%, respectively
Summary
The advent of nanotechnology has revolutionized the field of composites by introducing a novel class of nanocomposites, which contain the reinforcement with one of its dimensions less than 100nm. The addition of CNTs in epoxy causes an increase in tensile strength of composites up to a certain extent [9] while their addition with micrometer-size fibers like carbon fiber or glass fibers results in the significant rise [10,11,12,13,14,15]. The fabricated composites were mechanically characterized for tensile, hardness and shear testing while microstructural characterization was performed by optical and electron microscopy to observe the proper impregnation of Kevlar fibers with epoxy resin and observe the dispersion quality of MWCNTs. the mechanical property results were discussed in relation with microstructural evolution of the composites to acquire a better understanding of the combined reinforcing effect of nanometer size, i.e. MWCNTs and micrometer size, i.e. Kevlar fibers in multiscale composites
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