Investigation of the bending response of carbon nanotubes reinforced laminated tapered spherical composite panels with the influence of waviness, interphase and agglomeration

In the present study, the bending analysis of multi walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) reinforced laminated tapered spherical composite panels subjected to transverse loading conditions is carried out using the finite element method (FEM) with displacement fields derived from high order shear deformation theory. In this regard, the elastic properties of the polymeric nanocomposite, considering the MWCNTs agglomeration, waviness and interphase thickness between the MWCNTs and polymer matrix were computed by employing various micromechanical approaches. Subsequently, glass-fiber were introduced as a reinforcement phase, and the overall elastic properties of a three-phase MWCNT/fiber/polymer hybrid nanocomposite material were obtained using Chamis model. The accuracy of the developed FE formulation were verified using the experimental and numerical data available in the open literature. After verification, the deflection and stresses of the panel are numerically determined for various taper configurations. Further, detailed parametric analysis is carried out to explore the influence of various parameters such as CNT content, agglomeration, waviness, interphase area, thickness ratio, curvature ratio and taper configurations on the bending results of laminated tapered spherical panels. It was observed that an increase in the weight fraction of CNTs, an equal number of agglomeration parameter and the thickness of the interphase have a positive effect in minimizing the deflection and stresses. It was also observed that the TC-2 and TC-3 taper configurations results the highest and lowest deflection. Finally, it can be concluded the current work can serve as a guide for the effective design and development of CNT reinforced composite structures.