This thesis presents a numerical model for determining piezoelectric and non-linear elastic properties of piezoelectric composites consisting of nanotubes in a polymer matrix. Finite Element Analysis (FEA), in conjunction with the Embedded Fiber Method (EFM), is used, and variable nanotube geometry, alignment, and waviness are taken into account. First, a random morphology of a user-defined volume fraction of nanotubes is generated, and their properties are incorporated into the polymer matrix using the EFM. Next, the system is solved and the values are post-processed to determine the effective elastic and piezoelectric properties of the composite. Finally, incremental FEA approaches are used for the determination of the non-linear properties of the nanocomposite. Monte Carlo Analysis of five hundred random microstructures is performed to capture the stochastic nature of the fiber generation and to derive statistically reliable results. The models are validated by comparison with theoretical and experimental data reported in recent literature.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:RICE/oai:scholarship.rice.edu:1911/71978 |
| Date | 16 September 2013 |
| Creators | Koenck, Trevor |
| Contributors | Spanos, Pol D., Stanciulescu, Ilinca |
| Source Sets | Rice University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
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