Porosity Effects on Static Performance of Carbon Nanotube-Reinforced Meta-Nanocomposite Structures

Abstract

A mixture of outstanding merits of polymer nanocomposites (PNCs) and metamaterials can lead to the development of ultra-light meta-nanomaterials whose high sensitivity can be efficiently used in wearable strain sensors. Thus, reliable data about the performance of structural elements manufactured from such meta-nanomaterials are needed before implementing their design. Motivated by this issue, the negative impacts of pores in the microstructure and carbon nanotubes’ (CNTs’) wavy configuration on the nonlinear bending features of thick beams consisted of auxetic CNT-reinforced (CNTR) polymers are probed for the first time. The impacts of distinct porosity distributions on the mechanical reaction of the system are covered in this article. In addition, a very low computationally cost homogenization is implemented herein to consider the waviness’ influence on the reinforcement mechanism in the auxetic PNC material. Moreover, higher-order shear deformation theory (HSDT) is followed and merged with non-linear definition of strain tensor with the aid of von Kármán’s theory to gather the equations describing the problem. Thereafter, the famous Navier’s exact solution is employed towards solving the problem for thick beams with simple supports at both ends. A comparison of our data with those existing in the literature certifies the accuracy of the presented modeling. The outcomes indicate on the remarkable rise in the flexural deformation of the auxetic PNC beam while the coefficient of porosity is raised. It is also shown that utilization of thick-walled cells in the re-entrant lattice can help to control the system’s total deflection. In addition, if the non-ideal shape of the nanofillers is ignored, the deflection of the meta-nanomaterial beam will be much larger than that of ideal calculations.