Investigating effect of Nano-additives orientations on buckling strength of polymeric Nanocomposite plates reinforced by CNT and Nanoclay

In this article, the effect of adding nanoparticles into the matrix on improving the buckling strength of polymeric nanocomposite plates was investigated through finite element analysis. Two types of nanoparticles, including Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and Nanoclays with different volume fractions (VF), were added randomly into the Epoxy matrix and mechanical properties of the reinforced matrix were estimated using simulation of a representative volume element (RVE). Moreover, a python script was generated to distribute CNT nanoparticles in aligned orientations and calculate the equivalent Young's modulus in horizontal and vertical directions. Afterwards, the critical buckling load of nanocomposite plates made of unidirectional glass fibers and nanoparticle reinforced Epoxy matrix were studied, using Eigenvalue analysis. Results were validated by previous studies and a very good agreement was obtained. In general, adding nanoparticles into the matrix led to increasing the critical buckling load with an increase of nano-additive’s VFs. When nanoparticles were dispersed aligned with fiber directions, which is the same as loading direction, a higher increase of critical buckling load was observed. For the case of reinforcing pure polymeric plates without fibers, when nanoparticles were aligned in the longitudinal direction, axial critical buckling load rose to 55.3%, whereas for the random distribution, it was increased by 14.2%. Finally, a parametric study was conducted to evaluate the effect of nanoparticle orientations, the aspect ratio of plates, transverse loading, type, and volume fraction of nano-additives on the critical buckling load of polymeric plates.