Fracture toughness of carbon nanotube-reinforced metal- and ceramic-matrix composites

B. Liu*, Y. L. Chen, Y. Huang, K. C. Hwang

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

24 Scopus citations

Abstract

Hierarchical analysis of the fracture toughness enhancement of carbon nanotube- (CNT-) reinforced hard matrix composites is carried out on the basis of shear-lag theory and facture mechanics. It is found that stronger CNT/matrix interfaces cannot definitely lead to the better fracture toughness of these composites, and the optimal interfacial chemical bond density is that making the failure mode just in the transition from CNT pull-out to CNT break. For hard matrix composites, the fracture toughness of composites with weak interfaces can be improved effectively by increasing the CNT length. However, for soft matrix composite, the fracture toughness improvement due to the reinforcing CNTs quickly becomes saturated with an increase in CNT length. The proposed theoretical model is also applicable to short fiber-reinforced composites.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number746029
JournalJournal of Nanomaterials
Volume2011
DOIs
StatePublished - 2011

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Materials Science

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