Modeling and Characterization of Multiwall Carbon Nanotube Reinforced Polymer Composites for Damping Applications

The phenomenal damping characteristics of carbon nanotube reinforced polymer composites are attributed to the interfacial stick slip mechanism. In the current work, the interfacial-stick-slip-based damping mechanism is analytically studied for multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWNT) reinforced polymer composites. A theoretical model is proposed to estimate the loss factor for the representative volume element (RVE). An appropriate homogenization procedure is used to calculate the overall loss in the structure undergoing cyclic deformation. Damping experiments are carried out to validate the work. Satisfactory correlations are found to exist between the theory and experiments.