Numerical computation of electrical conductivity of carbon nanotube-filled polymers

A Finite Element (FE) model, based on the tunneling effect, has been developed for simulating the electrical behavior of carbon nanotube-filled polymers. The geometry modeled belongs to a three-dimensional plate with an equivalent to the nanocomposite physical structure and electrical behavior evaluated using homogenization techniques. The FE model, after validated against experimental and numerical data from the literature, has been applied to conduct a parametric study on the effects of nanotube’s volume fraction, electrical conductivity and aspect ratio and polymer’s height of barrier. The numerical results show that with increasing the nanotube volume fraction, electrical conductivity and aspect ratio the electrical conductivity of the nanocomposite increases significantly. The height of barrier has effect only at large volume fractions where it varies conversely with electrical conductivity. The proposed FE model is simple compared to the existing numerical models, requires very low computational effort and may be potentially used for the design and optimization of multifunctional nanocomposites.