Finite Element Modeling of the Vibrational Behavior of Single-Walled Silicon Carbide Nanotube/Polymer Nanocomposites

The multi-scale finite element method is used to study the vibrational characteristics of polymer matrix reinforced by single-walled silicon carbide nanotubes. For this purpose, the nanoscale finite element method is employed to simulate the nanotubes at the nanoscale. While, the polymer is considered as a continuum at the larger scale. The polymer nanotube interphase is simulated by spring elements. The natural frequencies of nanocomposites with different nanotube volume percentages are computed. Besides, the influences of nanotube geometrical parameters on the vibrational characteristics of the nanocomposites are evaluated. It is shown that reinforcing polymer matrix by single-walled silicon carbide nanotubes leads to increasing the natural frequency compared to neat resin. Increasing the length of the nanotubes at the same diameter results in increasing the difference between the frequencies of nanocomposite and pure polymer. Besides, it is observed that clamped-free nanocomposites experience a larger increase in the presence of the nanotubes than clamped-clamped nanotube reinforced polymers.