55th AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics and Materials Conference at AIAA SciTech 2014
13-17 January 2014, National Harbor, Maryland, USA

AIAA 2014-1168

Computational Modeling and Experimental Characterization of Macroscale Piezoresistivity in Aligned Carbon Nanotube and Fuzzy Fiber Nanocomposites

Adarsh K. Chaurasia, Xiang Ren, Yumeng Li, Engin C. Sengezer, Josh Burton and G. D. Seidel
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, 24061-0203, USA

In this study, a multiscale computational micromechanics based approach is developed to study the eect of applied strains on the eective macroscale piezoresistivity of carbon nanotube (CNT)-polymer and fuzzy ber-polymer nanocomposites. The computational models developed in this study allow for electron hopping and inherent CNT piezoresistiv- ity at the nanoscale in addition to interfacial damage at the CNT-polymer interface. The CNT-polymer nanocomposite is studied at the nanoscale allowing for interfacial damage at the CNT-polymer interface using electromechanical cohesive zones. For fuzzy ber- polymer nanocomposites, a 3-scale computational model is developed allowing for con- current coupling of the microscale and nanoscale. The electromechanical boundary value problem is solved using nite elements at each of the scales and the eective electrostatic properties are obtained by using electrostatic energy equivalence. The eective electro- static properties are used to evaluate the relative change in eective resistivity and the macroscale eective gauge factors for the nanocomposites. In addition, the piezoresistive response of aligned CNT-polymer and fuzzy ber-polymer nanocomposites is investigated experimentally. The results obtained from the computational models are compared to the experimentally observed change in resistance with applied strains and associated gauge factors.