Study of Effect of Carbon nanotube on Tensile, Impact and Flexural properties of Carbon fibre/epoxy reinforcement polymer

Abstract

Abstract Aircraft is highly efficient man-made flying machine, despite its complexity. One of the most essential considerations in the design and development of an aircraft is the structure's weight. This work is concerned with fabrication and experimental investigations of the mechanical properties of Carbon fiber Reinforcement Polymers (CFRP) along with Carbon Nanotubes (CNT) as additives. The usage of high-performance polymeric composites is a valuable alternative to conventional materials due to their high mechanical properties, stiffness to weight ratio and damage tolerance. The present work evaluates mechanical properties of CNT added CFRP’s and compares it with the CFRP alone. Samples of carbon reinforced composites added with CNT are fabricated by hand lay-up process and their mechanical properties such as tensile strength, flexural strength and impact strength are investigated by the experimental study. The CNT with 0.5wt. %, 1 wt.%, and 2 wt.% are added to the carbon fiber reinforcement polymer. The addition of CNT to CFRP resulted in improvement of tensile strength by 27.5 %, 53.25 %, and 40 % respectively. The tested specimens were observed by SEM which showcased the phenomenon of fibre breakage and pull out under loading conditions.