Liquid Moulding of Carbon Nanoparticle Filled Composites
This thesis focuses on the incorporation of carbon nanoparticles within continuous fibrereinforcements by liquid composite moulding processes, in order to provide enhanced electricaland delamination properties to the multiscale composites. The mechanisms controlling the flowand filtration of these nanoparticles during liquid composite moulding are studied, in order todevelop a predictive 1-D model which allows design of the processing of these compositematerials. Five different carbon nanoparticles at 0.25 wt% loading, three unmodified and one surfacemodified carbon nanotube systems and one carbon nanofibre system, were utilised to modify acommercial two-component epoxy resin utilised to impregnate carbon and glass reinforcementsat high fibre volume fraction by resin transfer moulding. The dispersion of the nanofillers in theprepolymer was carried out by ultrasonication, high shear mixing or triple roll milling or acombination of the three. Electrical conductivity measurements of the carbon nanoparticle liquidsuspensions during dispersion, alongside optical microscopy imaging and rheological analysis ofthese allowed the selection of the concentration of nanofiller and the appropriate dispersiontechnique for each nanoparticle system. The resin transfer moulding process required adaptation to incorporate the dispersion andmodify degassing steps, especially when utilising unmodified carbon nanoparticles suspensions, due to their higher viscosity and tendency to be filtered. Nanoparticle filtration was identified byelectrical conductivity measurements and microscopy of specimens cut at increasing distancesfrom the inlet. Cake filtration was observed for some of the unmodified systems, whereas deepbed filtration occurred for the surface modified CNT material. Property graded composites wereobtained due to filtration, where the average electrical conductivity of the carbon and glasscomposites produced increased by a factor of two or one order of magnitude respectively. Theeffect of filler on the delamination properties of the carbon fibre composites was tested undermode I. The results do not show a statistically significant improvement of delaminationresistance with the presence of nanoparticles, although localised toughening mechanisms suchas nanoparticle pull-out and crack bridging as well as inelastic deformation have been observedon fracture surfaces. Particle filtration and gradients in concentration resulted in non-linear flow behaviour. An 1-Danalytical and a finite difference model, based on Darcy's law accompanied by particle massconservation and filtration kinetics were developed to describe the flow and filtration of carbonnanoparticle filled thermosets. The numerical model describes the non-linear problem byincorporating material property update laws, i.e. permeability, porosity and viscosity variationson concentration of retained and suspended particles with location and time. The finitedifference model is consistent and converges to the analytical solution. The range ofapplicability of the analytical model is limited to lower filtration coefficients and shorter fillinglengths, providing an approximate solution for through thickness infusion; whereas thenumerical model presents a solution outside this range, i.e. in-plane filling processes. Thesemodels allow process design, with specified carbon nanoparticle concentration distributionsachieved via modifying the nanofiller loading at the inlet as a function of time.