W Zhang et al 2008 Nanotechnology 19 285709 doi:10.1088/0957-4484/19/28/285709
W Zhang, R C Picu and N Koratkar1
Show affiliationsFatigue is one of the primary reasons for failure in structural materials. It has been demonstrated that carbon nanotubes can suppress fatigue in polymer composites via crack-bridging and a frictional pull-out mechanism. However, a detailed study of the effects of nanotube dimensions and dispersion on the fatigue behavior of nanocomposites has not been performed. In this work, we show the strong effect of carbon nanotube dimensions (i.e. length, diameter) and dispersion quality on fatigue crack growth suppression in epoxy nanocomposites. We observe that the fatigue crack growth rates can be significantly reduced by (1) reducing the nanotube diameter, (2) increasing the nanotube length and (3) improving the nanotube dispersion. We qualitatively explain these observations by using a fracture mechanics model based on crack-bridging and pull-out of the nanotubes. By optimizing the above parameters (tube length, diameter and dispersion) we demonstrate an over 20-fold reduction in the fatigue crack propagation rate for the nanocomposite epoxy compared to the baseline (unfilled) epoxy.
62.25.-g Mechanical properties of nanoscale systems
81.40.Np Fatigue, corrosion fatigue, embrittlement, cracking, fracture, and failure
Issue 28 (16 July 2008)
Received 11 March 2008, in final form 7 May 2008
Published 3 June 2008
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