Numerical investigation and experimental verification of thermal frequency of carbon nanotube-reinforced sandwich structure

Abstract

The modal responses of multi-walled carbon nanotube-reinforced composite sandwich structural plate are computed under the elevated temperature environment using a higher-order polynomial kinematic model and the isoparametric finite element steps. The proposed model accuracy has been verified with experimental modal values under the influence of elevated temperature and ambient conditions. To perform the modal experiment the nanotube-reinforced composite sandwich panel filled with the epoxy core is fabricated. Further, the experimental elastic properties of epoxy, nanotube/epoxy composite and the sandwich are obtained individually for the current computational purpose. A tailor-made finite element computer code (MATLAB environment) is prepared using the multiscale mathematical formulation for the evaluation of thermal frequencies of the nanotube sandwich panel. The impact type vibration analyser has been utilized for the current testing purpose with the help of three components i.e. hardware (compact data acquisition system, cDAQ-9178), software (LAB-VIEW) and a microcontroller controlled thermal chamber (to maintain temperature profile). Finally, wide varieties of numerical examples are solved using the proposed computational model for the different design-related parameters. The intrinsic behaviour of each parameter on the epoxy-filled nanotube sandwich construction including the elevated temperature loading is discussed in details.