Numerical simulation on electrical property of carbon nanotube cement-based composites

The finite element model of carbon nanotube (CNT) cement-based composites was set up by using ANSYS 12.0 and Monte Carlo method. The effects of aspect ratio, diameter and concentration of CNT on the effective electrical resistivity of composites were investigated with finite element analysis method. Furthermore, the effective resistivity calculated by finite element analysis and the resistivity tested in experiment were respectively regressed through general effectvie media equation. The results of numerical simulation show that the resistivity calculated with finite element analysis consists with the experiment results. This proves that using finite element analysis to simulate electrical property of CNT cement-based composites was feasible. The effective resistivity of CNT cement-based composites decreases with the increasing of the CNT concentration and CNT aspect ratio, and the decreasing of the CNT diameter. The curve changes regressed by general effectvie media on the numerical results of the effective resistivity of the CNT cement-based composites calculated with finite element analysis are consistent with the experiment results. ©, 2014, Journal of Functional Materials. All right reserved.