Evaluation of elastic properties of graphene nanoplatelet/epoxy nanocomposites

The present work deals with the determination of elastic properties of graphene nanoplatelet (GNP) reinforced epoxy nanocomposites. The elastic properties of GNP/epoxy nanocomposite at different fiber volume fractions have been determined. Different analytical models such as the rule of mixture, Halpin-Tsai model, Tandon-Weng model, and Chamis model have been considered to determine the elastic properties of the nanocomposites. The variation of elastic properties with volume fraction of GNP has been observed for all the four analytical models. It has been observed that the longitudinal Young & rsquo;s modulus and Poisson & rsquo;s ratio obtained by using all the models show good agreement with each other. Transverse Young & rsquo;s modulus and in-plane shear modulus obtained by using all the models show an acceptable agreement with each other. The elastic properties of GNP/epoxy nanocomposites have also been compared with the conventional glass/epoxy composites as well as advanced carbon nanotube/epoxy nanocomposites and a similar trend of results have been observed. With the increase in volume fraction of GNP, the longitudinal Young & rsquo;s modulus increases and Poisson & rsquo;s ratio decreases linearly of the nanocomposite. But with the increase in volume fraction of GNP, both the transverse Young & rsquo;s modulus and in-plane shear modulus of the nanocomposite increases nonlinearly. It can be concluded from the present study that the Halpin-Tsai model gives better results than the other three analytical models. (c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Materials, Processing & Characterization.