Modeling of Randomly Oriented Carbon Nanotube Reinforced Composites

Abstract

One of the most important issues in micromechanics is the characterization of the global behavior of the material. Even though Voigt and Reuss models give us a limit, different characterization methods are used to determine the actual behavior of the material. Of these methods, the representative volume method is one approach. It has the goal of characterizing the material by analyzing it by means of a numerical model. As another approach the heterogeneous structure is characterized at a local scale again using a numerical simulation and then to obtain global behavior, the structure is homogenized using an Eshelby-based method like Mori-Tanaka. In this second method, generally one directional modulus of elasticity is determined. Which is inadequate for a highly anisotropic structure. In this study, the data generated at local level will be used to characterize the local model as an anisotropic building block.