Constitutive Modeling of Nanotube-reinforced Polymer Composite Systems

Download or read book Constitutive Modeling of Nanotube-reinforced Polymer Composite Systems written by Gregory M. Odegard and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this study, a technique has been proposed for developing constitive models for polymer composite systems reinforced with single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT). Since the polymer molecules are on the same size scale as the nanotubes, the interaction at the polymer/nanotube interface is highly dependent on the local molecular structure and bonding. At these small length scales, the lattice structures of the nanotube and polymer chains cannot be be considered continuous, and the bulk mechanical properties of the SWNT/polymer composites can no longer be determined through traditional micromechanical approaches that are formulated using continuum mechanics. It is proposed herein that the nanotube, the local polymer near the nanotube, and the nanotube/polymer interface can be modeled as an effective continuum fiber using an equivalent-continuum modeling method.