Investigating the effects of reinforcement size on mechanical properties of a cracked CNT and GNP polymer reinforced nanocomposite plate

Understanding the mechanical properties is crucial for designing nanocomposites (NCs) to withstand various stress conditions in practical applications, thereby ensuring their reliability and durability. This work investigated the impact of the size of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene nanoplates (GNPs) on the mechanical characteristics of cracked polymer-nanocomposites (NCs) with epoxy matrix using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The influence of changing CNT lengths and GNP dimensions on the mechanical properties of nanocomposites, including ultimate strength, Young’s modulus, fracture toughness, and uniform crack strain, was examined by simulating tensile tests. The numerical results for US, YM, uniform crack strain, and toughness in the polymer matrix were 224.30 MPa, 3.02 GPa, 0.12, and 29.83 eV/Å 3 , respectively. By adding nanoparticles to the epoxy resin, the ultimate strength of the resin increased to 330.30 MPa, while the Young’s modulus of the nanocomposite specimen came out to be 3.13 GPa. Conversely, the toughness and uniform crack strain values for this nanocomposite were 103.27 eV/Å 3 and 0.27, respectively. Results indicate that when the size of CNTs is increased from 5 to 15 Å, the US and YM of NC decreased. Likewise, increasing GNP dimensions from 5 to 12.5 Å decreased the US and YM of the NC. Furthermore, increase in the length of CNTs from 5 to 15 Å and GNPs from 5 to 12.5 Å, respectively, led to a decrease in nanocomposite toughness. The results of this study emphasizes the correlation between mechanical properties and the dimensions of CNT and GNP. This information is valuable in the development of nanocomposite materials more suitable for advanced engineering applications.