carbon nanotubes

Composites reinforced by thinner fibers are intensively studied in recent years and expected to have better
mechanical properties. With development of nanotechnology, the diameter of fiber can be as thin as
several nanometers, such as nanofibers and nanotubes. Then, do these thinner fibers definitely result in
composites with better mechanical properties? In this paper, the toughening effect of reinforcing fibers in
composites is investigated based on the three-level failure analysis model. It is found that thinner

Complex structures consisting of intertwined, nominally vertical carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are called turfs. Under uniform compression experiments, CNT turfs exhibit irreversible collective buckling of a layer preceded by reorientation of CNT segments. Experimentally observed independence of the buckling stress and the buckling wavelength on the turf width suggests the existence of an intrinsic material length.

Applications are invited for the position of "Post‐doctoral Research Fellow" as part of a multi-disciplinary collaborative project funded by Lockheed Martin. The project's Principal Investigators are:

Dr. Kumar Shanmugam, Mechanical Engineering

Dr. Matteo Chiesa, Materials Science & Engineering

Dr. Amal Al Ghaferi, Materials Science & Engineering

We systematically investigated the interesting electric response of the aligned CNT ribbons under mechanical strain. We found that CNTs slide on a PDMS substrate under tension, but buckle under compression (releasing). Such an irreversible mechanical deformation is responsible for the observed irreversibility in the electric resistance upon the first stretching/releasing.

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