Comparing Mechanical Properties of Polymer Based Graded and nonGraded Materials Reinforced with Carbon Nano tubes

The aim of this paper is to investigate mechanical properties of epoxy based graded and non-graded materials reinforced with carbon nano tubes (CNTs). This study considers the effects of reinforcements in mechanical properties in mode I. Composites were fabricated with the 0.1 mass percentages. Ultrasonic machine was used to disperse the carbon nano tubes to have a uniform mixture and to avoid agglomeration of carbon nano tubes. Two mechanical tests were used, pure tension and a tensile test according to ASTM standard. The experiments from the pure tension test show a comparison between the mechanical properties of the graded and non-graded materials such as Young modulus and Poison ratio. A comparison between the fracture toughness values and the fracture forces will be considered with Force-Displacement data.