Analytical and Numerical Studies of the Effect of Impact Forces on Polymer/Clay Nanocomposites

The high costs of experimental works on the nanocomposites can be reducedthrough implementation of analytical and numerical studies. To study theeffect of impact energy on the nanocomposites, a nanocomposite composedof polyurethane and clay nanoparticles is selected as a case study. The finite elementmodeling is carried out using the ANSYS software, and the impact analysis is performedusing LSDYNA. Three distinct regions: namely the polymer, the clay particles,and the interface are considered in the modeling. Subsequently, the effects ofstaggering factor, vertical distance between nanoparticles, aspect ratio, and volumefraction of clay nanoparticles on the reaction of the nanocomposite to the impactforces are investigated. The magnitude of the displacement of the specimen and themaximum force at the contact point are important parameters in impact analysis. Inorder to study the effect of structural parameters, two different impact velocities areconsidered, and for each 160 finite element modelings are performed. In each case,the effective parameters together with their limitations are considered. Differentgraphs are presented and analyzed for the effect of every structural parameter on theimpact. The results of this study show that for a nanocomposite of aspect ratio equal100, staggering factor of 0.5, and exfoliation factor of 0.51, the volume fraction ofthe clay nanoparticles is the range of 1.5 to 3 percent which can be considered optimumas far as the effect of impact forces are concerned