Experimental Study on the Effect of Adding Multi-walled Carbon Nanotubes on the Ballistic Limit of Fibers Metal Laminates

In this paper, the effect of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) on the ballistic limit of fibers metal laminates (FML) Exprimentaly investigated. For this purpose, the MWCNTs were added with weight percentages of 0.2, 0.4, and 0.6 to pure epoxy resin and homogenized by mechanical and ultrasonic homogenizers. Then the FMLs were fabricated by fiber glass, 2024-T3 aluminum alloy sheets, pure epoxy resin, and modified resin with MWCNTs using a hand lay-up process. In the end, Ballistic tests on the samples were conducted by using a conical nose projectile. The experimental results show that the ballistic limit of FMLs is increased by adding MWCNTs. Also highest in this increase was observed in samples containing 0.4 weight percentages of MWCNTs, but in the 0.6 weight percentage, agglomeration of nanoparticles caused a reduction in the mechanical properties. The microstructural investigations using Electron microscopy show that the addition of MWCNTs improves the interfacial adhesion between the epoxy matrix and the reinforcing fibers.