Modeling of thermomechanical properties of polymeric hybrid nanocomposites

Abstract

This article reports modeling of effective thermomechanical properties of multifunctional carbon nanotube (CNT)-reinforced hybrid polymeric composites (hereafter, it is referred as “fuzzy fiber composite”). The novel constructional feature of fuzzy fiber composite (FFC) is that nanoscale CNTs are radially grown on the circumferential surfaces of microscale carbon fibers. Several micromechanical models were developed to predict the effective thermomechanical properties of FFC. The waviness of CNTs is intrinsic to many manufacturing processes and it influences thermomechanical behavior of two-phase CNT-reinforced composites. Therefore, an endeavor was also made to investigate the effect of wavy CNTs on the effective thermomechanical properties of FFC. The proposed modeling approach was applied to a heat exchanger made of FFC to determine its effective thermal conductivities. The findings of our study suggest that FFC containing nano- and micro-scale fillers show improved thermomechanical properties and are promising next-generation polymeric composites for advanced structural applications. POLYM. COMPOS., 39:4148–4164, 2018. © 2017 Society of Plastics Engineers. © 2017 Society of Plastics Engineers