Effect of manufacturing processes and multi-walled carbon nanotube loading on mechanical and dynamic properties of glass fiber reinforced composites

An effective manufacturing process and high-performance composite structures are indispensable in the aerospace, automobile, and shipbuilding industries. The current study focuses on the combined effect of carbon nanotube (CNT) reinforcement and manufacturing methods such as co-curing, co-bonding, and secondary bonding (SB) on mechanical and free vibrational behavior of glass fiber reinforced plastic composite. Results affirmed that composite fabricated using co-cure manufacturing method with 1 wt% CNT loading improved the tensile strength by 22.8%, 12.7% compared to co-bonded and secondary bonded composites due to rougher surface formation over the fiber improved the adhesion between fiber and matrix. On the other hand, 0.25 wt% CNT added secondary bonded composite had the highest (398.19 MPa) flexural strength. The modal analysis asserted that 1 wt% CNT added co-cured composite beam had the higher fundamental natural frequencies while higher wt% CNT loading enhanced the damping properties owing to higher interaction among fiber and matrix. The current study exposes that mechanical properties and free vibrational characteristics can be improved by selecting the right manufacturing technique and appropriate weight fractions of CNTs. The co-cure manufacturing with 1 wt% of CNTs and SB with 0.25 wt% of CNTs provided the greatest enhancement to adhesively bonded composites' mechanical properties and dynamics characteristics.