Effect of adding carbon nanotubes into the matrix material on the buckling behavior of glass/epoxy composite plates: An experimental study

In this research, buckling of polymer matrix composite plates containing unidirectional glass fibers under in-plane pressure load is investigated. Moreover, the effect of adding carbon nanotubes as reinforcement into the matrix material on the critical buckling load of composite plates is studied. Using hand lay-up method, rectangular glass/epoxy composite plates with and without carbon nanotubes were fabricated. 0.25, 0.5 and 1.0 weight percent of carbon nanotubes were added to the epoxy resin and composite plates were subjected to the longitudinal in-plane pressure load. The plates were tested under fix ended boundary conditions utilizing Instron hydraulic universal testing machine. Based on the results, adding 0.5 weight percent of carbon nanotubes has the most influence on the critical buckling load of the plates. Results show that adding 0.5 weight percent of carbon nanotubes into the matrix material increases the critical buckling load of the carbon nanotubes /glass/epoxy plate more than two times with respect to that of glass/epoxy composite plate. Furthermore, when the carbon nanotubes weight percent reaches 1 %, because of carbon nanotubes agglomeration, carbon nanotubes are not dispersed well into the epoxy resin and the critical buckling load of the composite plate decreases. To validate the results, buckling analysis of glass/epoxy composite plate was done in Abaqus finite element software. Finite element models confirm the experimental results obtained.