Predicting Young's modulus of CNT-reinforced polymers

In this paper, a formulation for prediction of effective Young's modulus of carbon nanotube (CNT) reinforced polymers is presented. Based on fuzzy logic, a novel bridging method between experimental and theoretical results is used. This method provides three steps to calculate the true value of the modulus. First, the Young's modulus of a hypothetical representative volume element (RVE) is obtained. Since nanocomposites consist of volume elements (VE) with different alignment angles, in the next step, the rotation effects on the VE's modulus are considered. Subsequently, these VEs are replaced with aligned VEs which have compatible volume percentages. Based on the obtained different volume percentages, a suitable RVE with equivalent volume percentage is developed. Using this equivalent RVE and referring to step one, the Young's modulus of the nanocomposite is determined. The obtained results show a good agreement with the experimental ones and with those obtained by traditional methods. The advantage of the proposed formula compared with conventional ones is its applicability to a wide domain of volume percentage of CNT. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.