Author(s)

Farzin Javanshour¹, Kaan Bilge^2,3, Abdul Bari Abdul Raheman⁴, Melih Papila^4*

¹VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd., Tampere, Finland.
²Insight Technology Development and Consultancy, Kozyatağı, Istanbul, Türkiye.
³Materials Science & Nano Engineering Program, Sabanci University, Istanbul, Türkiye.
⁴Department of Mechanical Engineering, California State University Northridge, Northridge, USA.

This study proposes a facile, but precise method to back-calculate the effective modulus of nanocomposite interleaving plies. Adaptation of a conventional dry-reinforcement resin film infusion (RFI) approach allows interleaving neat epoxy layers (NE) with the epoxy-infused nanofibrous plies (XE) of constant thickness. The final cured nanocomposite laminate thus has the form (NE/XE)_n, where “n” denotes the number of the repeats and enables clear distinction of the nanocomposite interlayers through the thickness. Mechanical testing of neat epoxy and laminated nanocomposite specimens can be coupled with the classical lamination theory for back-calculating in-plane elastic modulus of the individual epoxy-infused nanofibrous plies (E_XE). Finite element analysis (FEA) and testing the laminated nanocomposite subject to flexural loading (3-point bending) are proposed to validate the analytically back-calculated E_XE. It is shown that the FEA prediction incorporating E_XE and testing for flexural modulus of (NE/XE)₂₀ laminated nanocomposites correlate well and the results are within 5%. This finding suggests that the back-calculation scheme reported herein would be attractive for accurately determining the properties of an individual nanocomposite building block layer. The proposed framework is beneficial for modelling laminated structural composites incorporating XE-like nanocomposite interlayers.

Lamination Theory, Resin Film Infusion, Electrospun Nanofibers, Mechanical Properties

Javanshour, F. , Bilge, K. , Raheman, A. and Papila, M. (2024) Stiffness of In-Situ Formed Interleaving Polymeric Nanofiber-Epoxy Nanocomposites. Open Journal of Composite Materials, 14, 147-157. doi: 10.4236/ojcm.2024.144011.