Title: A Preliminary Study of Using Film Adhesives Containing Aligned and Unaligned Nanotubes and Nanofibers for Bonding CFRP Laminates and Steel Plates

Authors: William W. Taylor, Md N. Uddin, Mohammad R. Islam, Melike Dizbay-Onat, Kuang-Ting Hsiao

DOI: 10.33599/nasampe/s.22.0752

Abstract: Well-dispersed and unaligned multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MCNTs) infused liquid epoxy adhesive have been reported for significantly improving the adhesive-joint of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite laminates. However, it has not been determined in the literature if the alignment of MCNTs would provide an additional improvement than the randomly aligned case. In this study, various epoxy film adhesives embedded with 1wt% through-thickness aligned MCNTs, unaligned MCNTs, aligned carbon nanofibers (CNFs), and unaligned CNFs were used for bonding CFRP laminates. These variants have been used to bond two CFRP laminates for the ASTM D5868-01 single lap test as well as a steel variant for the same bonding process. The average shear strengths of the samples bonded by the various film adhesives were compared with the samples bonded by the pure epoxy-films. Microscopic analysis has been used to examine the fracture surface after testing. It was also used to visualize how the film adhesives fail while experiencing shear. This study has investigated the effectiveness of infusing through-thickness directionally aligned vs. unaligned nanoparticles in an epoxy film adhesive for bonding CFRP laminates and steel plate. It also indicates the potential future research direction of using nanoparticles in advanced adhesive technologies.

References: 1. E. Thostenson, Z. Ren, T. Chou, Advances in the science and technology of carbon nanotubes and their composites: a review, Composites Science and Technology, Volume 61, Issue 13, 2001. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0266-3538(01)00094-X 2. A. Scruggs, S. Kirmse, K.T. Hsiao, Enhancement of Through-Thickness Thermal Transport in Unidirectional Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic Laminates due to the Synergetic Role of Carbon Nanofiber Z-Threads, Journal of Nanomaterials, 2019. 3. K.T. Hsiao, J. Alms, S. Advani, Use of epoxy/multiwalled carbon nanotubes as adhesives to join graphite fibre reinforced polymer composites. Nanotechnology,2003. 4. S. Kirmse, B. Ranabhat, K.T. Hsiao, Experimental and analytical investigation on the interlaminar shear strength of carbon fiber composites reinforced with carbon nanofiber z-threads, Elsevier, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtcomm.2020.101512 5. D. Zhang, Y. Huang, and Y. Wang, Bonding performances of epoxy coatings reinforced by carbon nanotubes (MCNTs) on mild steel substrate with different surface roughness. Composites Part A, 147, 2021. doi: 10.1016/j.compositesa.2021.106479. 6. A. Kumar, K. Kumar, P.K. Ghosh, A. Rathi, K.L. Yadav, Raman. MWMCNTs toward superior strength of epoxy adhesive joint on mild steel adherent. Composites Part B. 2018;143:207-216. doi:10.1016/j.compositesb.2018.01.016

Conference: SAMPE 2022

Publication Date: 2022/05/23

SKU: TP22-0000000752

Pages: 15

Price: $30.00