Carbon Nanotube/Carbon Fiber Multiscale Composite: Influence of Interfacial Strength on Mechanical Properties

A promising study to gain the multiscale composite by the growth of carbon nanotubes on the fibers for intralaminar and interlaminar reinforcement was carried out. The mathematical modeling and the numerical simulation of the mechanical response are helpful for the optimum design of the multiscale composite. In this paper, a multiscale modeling approach using a commercial package ANSYS was used to simulate the mechanical response of the complicated material systems. The behavior of two types of interfaces (carbon nanotube/epoxy resin, carbon fiber/equivalent matrix) was described using a cohesive zone model, and the mechanical properties of the multiscale composite were predicted accurately. The mechanism of intralaminar reinforcement was then analyzed numerically. The results reveal that the matrix-dominated properties of the multiscale composite, such as the transverse elastic modulus, increase with the increase of the carbon nanotube/epoxy resin interfacial strength.