Graphene is a material of excellent mechanical properties, which make it an ideal fiber for reinforcing metal. Since iron is the most used metal in the world, reinforcing iron with graphene can reduce the overall requirement of material in any application where strength is demanded. However, the effect of graphene reinforcement on the mechanical properties of iron needs to be known before the industrial application of the composite. In this paper, we have investigated the mechanical properties of graphenereinforced iron composite by Molecular Dynamics (MD) method for various conditions. The properties were investigated by applying uniaxial tension on a modeled representative volume element (RVE). The findings in our study show that for only 9% fiber volume, the failure strength of iron increased 48.87% and Young's modulus 41.315%. The effect of temperature on the mechanical property of the composite was also studied because the knowledge is required for manufacturing products with the composite operating at a wide temperature range. MD analysis also revealed that the initiation of fracture is from the matrix-fiber interface. We also investigated how the distance of vacancy defects from the matrix-fiber interface affects the mechanical properties of the composite, which can be used to select a suitable manufacturing process. The results obtained from this study show that vacancy defects lower the strength at a greater extent as it gets closer to the interface.
Carbon nanotube (CNT) reinforced metal matrix composites (MMCs) are gaining the attention of the researchers because of their demand in space and automobile industries for having low weight and high mechanical properties. Iron is the most used metal in all engineering fields. Therefore, reinforcing iron with CNT can reduce its required amount, which might have a positive economic impact due to the reduced cost of production. However, before the industrial application of any material the mechanical properties under different conditions must be known. In this study, the mechanical properties of iron reinforced separately with single, double and triple wall CNTs are investigated by Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulation. The study revealed that the strength and stiffness of pure iron could be enhanced up to 80.4 % and 57.4 %, respectively, by adding CNTs into iron. We also investigated the effect of fiber volume percentage and temperature on the mechanical properties of the composite having single, double and triplewalled carbon nanotubes individually. As the stone-wales and bi-vacancy defects are inherently introduced in CNTs during manufacturing, their effect on mechanical properties are also investigated in the present study.
Designing novel and energy-efficient strategies for disturbing stable interfaces between two immiscible liquids hold the key for a myriad of applications. In this Letter, we propose a highly effective strategy where localized heating (costing less energy) of an interface between two immiscible liquids confined in a nanochannel enable rapid imbibition and mixing between these two liquids. The exact dynamics (imbibition or mixing) depend on the relative wettability of these two liquids to the nanochannel wall. For the case where one liquid is philic and the other is phobic to the nanochannel wall, local heating makes a particular liquid imbibe into the zone occupied by the other liquid with the philic liquid occupying nearwall locations and the phobic liquid occupying the bulk (far wall) positions. The extent of imbibition is quantified in terms of the interfacial thickness between the two liquids, which is found to be larger than the case where the entire system is heated (costing greater energy). We further show that this interfacial thickness can be enhanced by changing the position (along the nanochannel) of localized heating. Finally, we demonstrate that for the immiscible two liquid systems having identical wetting interactions with the wall, the lack of preference of occupying the near wall location by any of the liquids lead to their enhanced mixing in the presence of the localized heating (that imparts additional energy to the liquids enforcing them to cross over to the side of the other liquid).
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.