In the present work, a combination of experimental and numerical procedure is proposed to study the effects of different hygrothermal conditions on the creep strain, viscoelastic properties of nanocomposites, and mechanical properties of such nanocomposite-based carbon fiber–reinforced polymer (CFRP) hybrid composite materials. Ultrasonic probe sonicator is used to randomly disperse the multiwalled carbon nanotubes into an epoxy to minimize agglomerations. Dynamic mechanical analysis is employed to conduct the creep tests under different hygrothermal conditions of such nanocomposite samples. The Findley power law is used to obtain the long-term creep behavior of nanocomposite materials. Prony series is used to determine the viscoelastic properties of nanocomposite material in the frequency domain. Coefficient of moisture expansion (CME) is independent of moisture concentration; thus, CME of the nanocomposite is also determined. Strength of materials and Saravanos–Chamis micromechanics (SCM) have also been utilized to obtain the mechanical properties of such hybrid composite materials under different hygrothermal conditions. It has been found that the inclusion of multiwalled carbon nanotubes in the nanocomposite and hybrid composites improves storage modulus and loss factor (i.e., tan δ) compared to the conventional CFRP-based composite materials under hygrothermal conditions.
The present article deals with the vibration and damping characteristics of functionally graded carbon nanotubes reinforced hybrid composite skewed shell structure in different hygrothermal conditions. Carbon nanotube reinforced polymer as a matrix phase and carbon fibre as a reinforcing phase are used, and carbon fibre is graded with uniform distribution along the thickness direction for the shell panel according to the power law distribution. The Mori–Tanaka scheme and strength of materials are used to determine the mechanical properties of such functionally graded carbon nanotubes reinforced hybrid composite materials. Finite element modelling has been done by considering an eight-noded shell element with the transverse shear effect according to Mindlin’s hypothesis, and an oblique coordinate system is used for the functionally graded carbon nanotubes reinforced hybrid composite skewed shell structures. Damping is incorporated into such carbon nanotube–based hybrid skewed shell structure based on the Rayleigh damping model. A MATLAB-based in-house computer code has been developed for the proposed formulation and verified with published research work before using for the present dynamic analysis of functionally graded carbon nanotubes reinforced hybrid composite skewed shell structure under hygrothermal conditions. The effect of the carbon nanotube, carbon fibre, material distribution as per power law index and hygrothermal conditions on the damping behaviour of such functionally graded carbon nanotubes reinforced hybrid composite skewed shell structures have been studied. Furthermore, parametric studies are carried out for the first resonant frequency, absolute amplitude, settling time and carbon nanotube impact on the vibrational behaviour of different functionally graded carbon nanotubes reinforced hybrid composite skewed shell structures under different hygrothermal conditions.
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