Study of nanotube waviness influence on the behaviors of spherical nanocomposites

Abstract

Considering the prominent properties of nanocomposites, the closer their modeling is to reality, the more suitable it is for engineering applications. One of the steps that can be taken for this purpose is to include the waviness of the reinforcements in the study of nanocomposites. In this article, for the first time, the effects of the waviness of reinforcing nanotubes in spherical nanocomposites on the behavior of mechanical waves have been studied. Several different ideas, such as adopting random contact model, the excluded volume of two spherocylinders, microscopic images and experimental results, are used for modeling wavy nanotubes in spherical nanocomposites, each of which has its own characteristics. For modeling the spherical nanocomposite itself, three-dimensional elasticity theory in spherical coordinates is used. For several different cases, the results of the present models are compared and calibrated with the results of experimental tests, which adds to the attractiveness of the work. The influences of various parameters such as radius of spherical nanocomposite, waviness factor, nanotubes volume fraction and wave number on the results are also investigated. From the results of this article, the idea can come to mind that the effects of the waviness of the nanotubes cannot be ignored in some cases and should be included in the modeling, otherwise it will produce significant errors in the results.