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Fracture and Elastoplastic Behavior of Polymer-Carbon Nanotube Composites under Thermomechanical Environment: An Integrated Dual-Scale Modeling and Experimental Study

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Abstract

In this paper, a dual-scale modeling approach is established to predict polymer-CNT composites’ elastic and thermal properties. The standard computational platform, i.e., DIGIMAT, was used to execute the mesoscale modeling. A 3D random representative volume element model in conjunction with the mean-field homogenization method is developed for the mesoscale computational analysis. With the assumption of perfect bonding, mesoscale modeling reveals the composites’ orthotropic elastic and thermal nature. Periodic boundary conditions were imposed to obtain the orthotropic nature at the mesoscale. The fracture toughness (mode-I stress intensity factor, KI) of the composites was studied at a macroscale using the mesoscale modeling’s orthotropic properties. The computational Young’s modulus and fracture toughness were found in good agreement with the experimental results. The experimental Young’s modulus of HDPE and LDPE composites has shown a variation from 7.26 ± 1.81 to 3.86 ± 1.44, and 3.81 ± 0.57 to 0.92 ± 0.32 GPa, respectively, with an increase in environmental temperature from 25 to 100 °C. The experimental fracture toughness has varied from 1.81 ± 0.09 to 0.26 ± 0.03, and 1.49 ± 0.12 to 0.07 ± 0.01 MPa-m1/2, respectively, for HDPE and LDPE composites, with an increase in environmental temperature from 25 to 100 °C. A statistical analysis (Weibull distribution) has also been performed to investigate the considered composites’ strength. The study reveals that the temperature has a noticeable effect on the softening, reducing the composites’ strength. Fractographic analysis on the tested composites using scanning electron microscopy reveals the composites’ failure due to the debonding of CNTs, softening of the matrix, formation of holes, and rough patches. The obtained numerical results can provide a suitable reference to study the fracture problems in other polymer nanocomposites.

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Funding

Half-Time Research Assistantship (HTRA) funded by MHRD, Department of Higher Education, New Delhi, INDIA. Financial support received from Aeronautics Research & Development Board (DRDO), New Delhi, India, through Grant file No. 1051914 is gratefully acknowledged.

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  1. Composite Design and Manufacturing Research Group, School of Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, VPO Kamand, Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, 175075, India

    Gaurav Arora & Himanshu Pathak

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Arora, G., Pathak, H. Fracture and Elastoplastic Behavior of Polymer-Carbon Nanotube Composites under Thermomechanical Environment: An Integrated Dual-Scale Modeling and Experimental Study. J. of Materi Eng and Perform 31, 7120–7137 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-022-06743-2

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