Investigation of Synergistic Influence of Reduced Graphene Oxide and Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes on Flexural Properties and Interlaminar Shear Strength of Carbon Fiber/Epoxy Composites

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Faculty Member, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Technical and Vocational University (TVU), Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

In this paper, the synergistic influence of reduced graphene oxide and multi-walled carbon nanotubes on flexural properties and interlaminar shear strength of unidirectional carbon fiber and epoxy composites was investigated experimentally. To undertake the study, four specimens of carbon fiber/epoxy composite, carbon fiber/epoxy/multi-walled carbon nanotube composite, carbon fiber/epoxy/reduced graphene oxide composite, and carbon fiber/epoxy/multi-walled carbon nanotube/reduced graphene oxide composite were made manually. Three-point bending test was used to evaluate the flexural properties and interlaminar shear strength. The test results showed that carbon fiber/epoxy/multi-walled carbon nanotube/reduced graphene oxide composite had better properties than the other composites and this was due to the synergistic effect of the two nanoparticles. Flexural properties including flexural stress, flexural strain and flexural modulus increased by 53.12%, 31.76% and 8.6%, respectively, and interlaminar shear strength increased by 60.41% compared to the specimen without nanoparticles. In addition, to observe the distribution of nanoparticles and the type of fracture performed, fracture surface analyses of all specimens were carried out.

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