Improving the fatigue life of composite by using multiwall carbon nanotubes

The fatigue life of polymer materials like epoxy can be improved by using stiffeners such as carbon fiber and/or adding multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). This article studies the effect of adding MWCNTs with different ratios (0.5, 1, and 2 wt%) to epoxy and composite (epoxy + 30% carbon fibers). The experimental results of the fatigue test with fully reversed bending stress (with R = −1) showed a maximum increase of 788% in fatigue life when adding 1 wt% MWCNTs to epoxy, while the maximum improvement ratio reaches 2,500% when adding 1 wt% MWCNTs to composite. The best results of fatigue life improvement were observed for samples with MWCNTs of 1 wt%. The material will be transferred from low cycle fatigue (less than 105 cycles) to high cycle fatigue (more than 105 cycles) by adding 1 wt% of MWCNTs. At the same time, the ratio of MWCNTs of more than 1 wt% (such as 2 wt%) will decrease the fatigue life due to the agglomeration of nanotubes inside the resin and reduce the positive effect of it. These agglomeration points work as a barrier to load transfer and stress concentration points. The numerical model was built to simulate the fatigue test and compare the results with the experimental with a discrepancy value of 7.5%.