15th Biennial ASCE Conference on Engineering, Science, Construction, and Operations in Challenging Environments
Izod Impact Testing of Carbon Nanotube-Reinforced Woven Composites Enabled by the PopTube Approach
Publication: Earth and Space 2016: Engineering for Extreme Environments
ABSTRACT
An ideal candidate to accomplish the reinforcement of the matrix and interphase zones of fiber reinforced composites (FRPs) is carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Because of their superior mechanical performance along with their excellent thermal and electrical properties, CNTs have been studied extensively as potential enhancements to traditional composite materials. CNTs are commonly grown in bulk and subsequently dispersed directly into the matrix material for composite material production. However, this approach has proven to be very difficult to implement in practice. A more effective approach is to grow CNTs directly on the reinforcing material, thereby avoiding the issue of CNT dispersion while also placing the CNTs precisely in the interphase zone. To these ends, a novel process – the PopTube Approach – has been developed that uses microwave irradiation to grow CNTs on carbon fibers in 15-30s in air. One concern with this technique is that the axial properties of composites can be adversely affected due to damage induced in the fibers by microwave irradiation. The objective of this study is to examine the effects of PopTube Approach treatment on one important axial property of composites: low-speed impact resistance. To this end, CNT-reinforced woven composites were produced using this novel method and tested for low-speed impact resistance using the Izod impact test. Two composites processing techniques/material systems were considered: wet layup vacuum bagging (with a room temperature-cure epoxy resin) and prepregging/press curing (with an elevated temperature cure polybenzoxazine resin). With each processing technique/material system, an untreated group was tested along with a treated group. Izod impact resistance testing showed that with wet layup vacuum bagging, the PopTube Approach-treated group exhibited a sizable decrease in Izod impact strength relative to the untreated group, whereas with press curing, the treated group exhibited a moderate increase in Izod impact strength relative to the untreated group. Following mechanical testing, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to characterize fracture processes in the woven composites. This experimental program serves to not only provide insight into the low speed impact resistance of CNT-reinforced composite materials produced via the PopTube Approach, but also to characterize the effectiveness of processing techniques with regard to the implementation of reinforcing fabrics processed by this novel method.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was supported by a NASA Space Technology Research Fellowship (NASA NNX13AL42H) and the NASA LEARN Fund (NASA NNX14AF49A). The authors would like to thank Dr. Sandi Miller for her oversight in the mechanical testing portion of this study.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Earth and Space 2016: Engineering for Extreme Environments
Pages: 743 - 753
Editors: Ramesh B. Malla, Ph.D., University of Connecticut, Juan H. Agui, Ph.D., NASA Glenn Research Center, and Paul J. van Susante, Ph.D, Michigan Technological University
ISBN (Online): 978-0-7844-7997-1
Copyright
© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Published in print: Dec 30, 2016
Published online: Jun 29, 2017
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