Mechanics of carbon nanotube reinforced nanocomposites

Many numerical models have been developed in attempts to improve the understanding of the stiffening effects of CNTs in a polymer matrix. These studies are based on the micromechanical models, because the atomistic models are computationally too expensive to simulate the behavior of the composite. We emphasize that the majority of these continuum micromechanical models either explicitly or effectively adopt an assumption of an ideally-bonded interface between the compliant polymer matrix and the stiff CNTs, and often lead to predictions of overall composite stiffness that are quite optimistic compared to experimental results. Here the effects of waviness, diameter and volume fraction of CNTs are studied with a new mixed numerical-analytical approach which allows to predict the elastic characteristics of composites with random distribution of CNTs.