Session: 17-01-01: Research Posters
Paper Number: 142367
142367 - Thermal Properties of Carbon Nanotubes Reinforced Epoxy Matrix Composites by Molecular Dynamic Simulations
The application of carbon nanotube (CNT) reinforced epoxy matrix composites (CRECs) in various industrial fields continues to grow due to the improved material properties of nanofillers. Notably, the thermal properties of these nanocomposites is determined by heat transfer mechanisms operating at multiple scales, resulting in complex relationships between the effective response and microscopic characteristics of the material. In this study, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were employed to investigate the thermal properties of CRECs with various CNT loadings, orientations, and geometrical parameters. To better understand how the nanoscale properties of the composites produce effective thermal properties of the composite, the thermal properties of their individual constituents (CNTs and epoxy) were firstly examined individually. This involves a detailed investigation of each component by MD simulations based on its different geometrical, physical, and chemical characteristics. Then, the effective thermal properties of the CREcs were analytically calculated and simulated. The results were validated against effective medium theory predictions, reveal that, in the examined configurations, the effective thermal properties of the CRECs increase with the CNT length and volume fraction. Additionally, it is affected by the degree of cure of the epoxy resin and the temperature of the system. From a broader perspective, the presented approach has the potential to be applied to examine various constituent materials or properties in nanocomposites.
Keywords: Thermal property, Thermal conductivity, Nanocomposite, Molecular dynamics (MD), Carbon nanotube (CNT), Epoxy
Presenting Author: Zhong Hu South Dakota State University
Presenting Author Biography: Zhong Hu has completed his BS and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. Currently, he is the professor and graduate program coordinator in Department of Mechanical Engineering at South Dakota State University, USA. He has taught the undergraduate courses of Engineering Materials, Dynamics, Fundamentals of Machine Design, and Automatic Controls; undergraduate and graduate cross list courses of Numerical Methods of Engineering Design and Computer-Aided Engineering; graduate courses of Advanced Machine Design, Advanced Stress Analysis, Properties and Applications of Composite Materials, and Frontiers of Materials, etc. He has published over 100 papers and presented dozens of papers in the national and international conferences. His research interests are involving biomimetics; bioinspired design and topology optimization; multi-scale material modeling and characterization; design and characterization of materials, composites, and nanomaterials; mechanical strength evaluation and failure prediction; and metal forming processing design, modeling, and optimization.
Authors:
Lida Najmi South Dakota State UniversityZhong Hu South Dakota State University
Thermal Properties of Carbon Nanotubes Reinforced Epoxy Matrix Composites by Molecular Dynamic Simulations
Paper Type
Poster Presentation