Tensile fracture behavior of short carbon nanotube reinforced polymer composites: A coarse-grained model

Short-fiber-reinforced polymer composites are increasingly used in engineering applications and industrial products owing to their unique combination of superior mechanical properties, and relatively easy and low-cost manufacturing process. The mechanical behavior of short carbon nanotube (CNT) polymer composites, however, remains poorly understood due to size and time limitations of experiments and atomistic simulations. To address this issue, the tensile fracture behavior of short CNT reinforced poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) matrix composites is investigated using a coarse-grained (CG) model. The reliability of the CG model is demonstrated by reproducing experimental results on the strain–stress behavior of the polymer material. The effect of the nanotube weight fraction on the mechanical properties, i.e. the Young’s modulus, yield strength, tensile strength and critical strain, of the CNT/polymer composites is studied in detail. The dependence of the mechanical properties of the composites on the orientation and length-to-diameter aspect ratio of nanotube reinforcements is also examined.