Numerical simulation of effective stiffness and local stresses for wavy nano-tube reinforced composites by the macro-microscopic homogenization method

The effective elastic properties and local stress of non-continuous wavy Carbon nano-tubes (CNTs)/polymer composites were analyzed by using the homogenization method with exact periodic boundary conditions. The effective fiber model with transversely isotropic constitutive relationships was utilized to simplify the CNT and the surrounding polymer in this study. The results show that the elastic properties and local stress are sensitive to CNTs arrays and CNTs's waviness within the selected representative volume element (RVE), and even slight change in nano-tube curvature significantly reduces the effective stiffness and the ablity of stress transfer for nano-tube reinforced composites compared with the straight nano-tubes reinforced composites, which helps to disclose the strengthening mechanism of wavy nano-tube composites and to improve the strengthening effect.