Reinforcing Effect of Nanoclay on Buckling Behavior of Nanocomposite Grid Shells: Experimental Investigation

The current study represents the influence of nanoclay on buckling behavior of glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) grid-stiffened nanocomposite shells. The nanocomposite grid shells were manufactured from continuous glass fiber using a specially designed filament winding machine. The epoxy/clay nanocomposites with different clay content (0%, 1.5%, 3% and 5% of clay) were used as the matrix of the grid stiffened structures. The state of dispersion and mechanical properties of the epoxy/clay nanocomposites were obtained by X-ray diffraction (XRD) method and uniaxial tensile test, respectively and also the grid structures were loaded under uniform axial compression test. The results of XRD show that the clay has been further intercalated by the epoxy matrix. The tensile test results represent that the tensile modulus and Strength, strain to break and energy to break of the epoxy/clay nanocomposites increase with adding clay loading into the epoxy resin. Furthermore, it is found that the critical buckling load of the cylindrical grid samples increases continuously with increasing the clay content up to 5 wt. %. The maximum value of improvement in the critical buckling load is about 10% for the samples with 5 wt. % of nanoclay.