Strong and Flexible Braiding Pattern of Carbon Nanotubes for Composites: Stiff and Robust Structure Active in Composite Materials

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) exhibit high strength, Young’s modulus, and flexibility and serve as an ideal reinforcement for composite materials. Owing to their toughness against bending and/or twisting, they are typically used as fabric composites. The conventional multiaxial braiding method lacks tension and resultant strength in the thickness direction. Some braiding patterns are proposed; however, they may have shortcomings in flexibility. Thus, this study proposed three types of braiding pattern for fabrics based on natural products such as spider net and honeycomb, in accordance with thickness-direction strength. The spider-net-based structure included wefts with spaces in the center with overlapping warps. At both sides, the warps crossed and contacted the wefts to impart solidness to the structure and enhance its strength as well as flexural stability. In addition, box-type wefts were proposed by unifying the weft and warps into boxes, which enhanced the stability and flexibility of the framework. Finally, we proposed a structure based on rectangular and hexagonal shapes mimicking the honeycomb. Moreover, finite element calculations were performed to investigate the mechanisms through which the proposed structures garnered strength and deformation ability. The average stress in fabrics becomes smaller than half (43%) when four edges are restrained and sliding is inserted. Under three-dimensional forces, our proposed structures underwent mechanisms of wrapping, warping, sliding and doubling, and partial locking to demonstrate their enhanced mechanical properties. Furthermore, we proposed a hierarchical structure specialized for CNTs, which could facilitate applications in structural components of satellites, wind turbines, and ships. The hierarchical structure utilizing discontinuity and sliding benefits the usage for practical mechanical systems.