Effect of GS stacking on the effective elastic modulus of carbon fiber reinforced GS-Al nanocomposites

ABSTRACT

This research article aims to estimate the consequence of graphene sheet (GSs) reinforcement in carbon fiber composite on the elastic modulus of the composite. Aluminum (Al) is taken as matrix material. Molecular dynamics (MD) approach is employed to perform the nanoscale modeling of the GS-embedded Al nanocomposite. The resulting elastic modulus of nanocomposite is further utilized to estimate the elastic modulus of nanocomposite at micro-and macro-scale. At higher scales, i.e. micro- and macro-scale, semi-empirical and analytical methods have been utilized to calculate the elastic modulus of the composite. The elastic moduli of carbon fiber–embedded GS–Al nanocomposites are found to be enhanced relative to the pristine carbon fiber–reinforced composites, irrespective of stacked or non-stacked GSs. It is established that stacking of GSs only affects marginally the elastic moduli of carbon fiber–reinforced Al composites.

KEYWORDS:

• Elastic modulus
• molecular dynamics
• representative volume method (RVE)
• Multi-scale modelling
• nanocomposite
• graphene
• stacking

Acknowledgments

This research work was accomplished at the Multiscale Simulation Research Center (MSRC), Manipal University Jaipur (MUJ), Rajasthan, India. The authors would like to kindly acknowledge the MSRC, MUJ Jaipur, Rajasthan, India.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The authors have no funding to report.

Notes on contributors

Ashish Kumar Srivastava

Dr. Ashish Kumar Srivastava was born in Pratapgarh, Uttar Pradesh, India. He graduated from Veer Bahadur Singh Purvanchal University and received a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2006. He completed his Master in Engineering in Mechanical Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology, Pilani in 2009. Ashish has completed his doctoral degree in Mechanical Engineering from Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur, India in 2018. Ashish is currently working as Associate Professor in Mechanical Department, Manipal University Jaipur. His research interest lies in the field of Computational Mechanics, Molecular Dynamics, Finite Element Methods, Nanocomposites, Characterization, Mechanics of Solids and Composites, Functionally Graded Materials.

Vimal Kumar Pathak

Dr. Vimal Kumar Pathak received his Ph.D degree in Mechanical Engineering (design) from MNIT Jaipur. He received his M. Tech degree from ISM Dhanbad, India. Currently, he is working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Manipal University Jaipur, Jaipur, Rajasthan. He is currently working on development of novel hybrid optimization algorithms and their applications. His research interest includes optimization, soft computing, composites, metrology etc.

Rakesh Kumar

Dr. Rakesh Kumar has received his Bachelor of Engineering (B.E) degree in Mechanical Engineering from VTU, Belgaum, Karnataka in 2011, M. Tech in Computer Aided Design from SRM University, Chennai in 2013, and the Doctor of Philosophy in Mechanical Engineering from Manipal University Jaipur, India in 2020. He is currently working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Manipal University Jaipur. His research area is Computational Biomechanics, and Biofluid Dynamics.

Rajesh Kumar

Dr. Rajesh Kumar is an Associate Professor at Chitkara University Institute of Engineering and Technology, Chitkara University, Punjab, India. He completed his Ph.D. in thermal science in 2018 and ME degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2009 both from Bits-Pilani (Pilani campus) Rajasthan, India. He has more than thirteen-year experience in teaching and research. He published more than 20 journals and conference papers. His area of research is biomass combustion, fluidization, energy from waste, IC engine, and rural development technologies.