Application of homogenization method on the analysis of micro-stress distributionin non-continuous carbon nanotube reinforced composites

The st ress dist ribution of non-continuous carbon nanotubes (CNTs) / polymer composites was analyzedusing the homogenization method with exact periodic boundary conditions , and the numerical calculations for regularand stagger array models were performed by the macro-microscopic finite element method ( FEM) . In order to utilizethe t raditional continuous mechanics approaches to determine the mechanical properties of CNTs composites , thecarbon nanotubes here were simplified as the effective fiber models which were obtained f rom the molecular dynamicssimulation. The result s obtained f rom regular array model were compared with those f rom Coxp shear-lag model ,Lauke and Fu theories , which show that the st resses t ransfer in CNTs composites are not only related to the aspectratio and volume f raction of CNTs as described in the above theories , but also sensitive to CNTs arrays and CNTspgeomet rical configuration within the selected representative volume element (RVE) . A better st ress t ransfer efficiency is obtained f rom stagger array , and the distance between two CNTs (2T_f ) has a great influence on the stressdist ribution. The result s show that there are some special characteristics for CNTs as the reinforcement phase ofcomposites , and they also prove that the homogenization method with multi-CNTs is efficient to analyze the st resst ransfer in CNTs composites.