Numerical study of curing thermal residual stresses in GF/CNF/epoxy nanocomposite using a random generator model

Abstract

The effect of adding carbon nanofibers (CNFs) on thermal residual stresses in polymer nanocomposites was conducted semi-analytically considering aligned and random distribution of CNFs. The Halpin-Tsai-Schapery (HTS) and Mori-Tanaka-Schapery (MTS) models were applied to detect the thermo-mechanical properties. The results illustrated that the FEM model, in which the nanofillers are randomly distributed, is more reliable. The addition of CNFs with random distribution leads to a reduction in residual stresses in longitudinal and transverse direction equally, whereas adding aligned dispersed CNFs in a specific direction leads to reducing further thermal residual stresses compared to a random distribution of CNFs.