This project is about mechanical characterization of high performance,
structural composite materials. Within the context of this project, a commercial,
now available epoxy resin reinforced with carbon nanotubes (CNT’s) was
compared with a high performance commercially available epoxy resin, also
using unidirectional carbon fiber as reinforcement agent.
CNT’s are a relatively new, interesting topic to study within the materials
science, and because of the potential shown in previous studies, are of utter
importance for critical structural applications, such as those found in the
aerospace industry. During this project previous references were studied and
used as comparison material to design the methodological framework followed
in this work.
To observe CNT’s benefits, samples tailored to American Society for Testing
and Materials (ASTM) standards were manufactured and tested in order to
quantify the mechanical properties discussed in this. ASTM standards provide
both the sample dimension requirements and the testing procedure to be
followed in order to obtain reliable, organized, meaningful data from proposed
tests. Tensile, shear and flexural strain-strength tests were performed in
samples using both kinds of resins.
Data collected from tests was organized, plotted and analyzed to understand
mechanical behavior of the samples during the tests. Main engineering values
such as ultimate tensile strength, engineering stress, young’s modulus, shear
strength and so were gathered and documented in this project. CNT’s
reinforced epoxy samples outperformed the common epoxy samples in general,
showing a better behavior as seen in the deformation energy absorbed in the
samples in each test.
It is encouraged to keep the research on the CNT’s topic as a promising and
relevant technology called to grow in use and performance in the future, as well
as to expand and improve the difficulties and limitations found in this project.
This project shows that even when using a low CNT’s content as reinforcement
agent within the matrix, evaluated mechanical properties are effectively
enhanced, making the CNT’s a good candidate for future composite material
components where weight saving and better structural mechanical performance
is needed.
