Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-2024

Department

Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics

Abstract

CNT yarns are used in ultra-high strength composites for use in manned deep-space vehicles. It has been previously demonstrated through experiments that gamma-ray irradiation substantially improves the mechanical performance of these composites. It is unclear how the irradiation affects the mechanical response of the CNT yarn/polymer interface that ultimately leads to these panel-level performance improvements. Physical insight into this process could enable further improvements in the CNT yarn/polymer interface design in the future. The objective of this research is to use molecular dynamics simulation to provide physical insight into the effect of gamma-ray irradiation on the mechanical behavior (interfacial interaction energy, shear resistance, adhesive strength) of the CNT yarn/polymer interface for a range of high-performance polymer systems. The simulation results indicate that gamma-ray irradiation (simulated via inclusion of defects on the CNT surface) has a most significant effect on the shear deformation resistance of CNT yarn/polymer interfaces, which likely leads to the experimentally-observed improvements in panel-level CNT yarn composites irradiated with gamma rays. The results of this study also demonstrate the importance of computational modeling in providing physical insight into observed bulk-scale material behavior. Although the predictions cannot be validated directly via experiment, such insight can ultimately lead to efficient improvements in material design (e.g. mechanical performance) that lead to further increases in panel-level composite performance.

Publisher's Statement

© 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Publisher’s version of record: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesb.2024.111715

Publication Title

Composites Part B: Engineering

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Version

Publisher's PDF

Download

Share

COinS