Modeling and Analysis the Effect of Helical Carbon Nanotube Morphology on the Mechanical Properties of Nanocomposites Using Hexagonal Representative Volume Element

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are the ultimate reinforcing materials for the development of an entirely new class of composites. However, they have the complicated shapes and do not usually appear as straight reinforcements when introduced in polymer matrices. This decreases nanotube's effectiveness in enhancing the matrix mechanical properties. In this paper, nano-structure having hexagonal representative volume element (RVE), theory of elasticity of anisotropic materials and finite element method (FEM) are used to investigate the effect of helical CNT morphology on effective mechanical properties of nanocomposites. CNT with different helical angles are modeled to estimate the nanocomposite mechanical properties. The results of helical nanotube models are compared with the effective mechanical properties of nanocomposites reinforced with straight nanotubes.