Prashant Jindal
Panjab University, India
Title: ABC/MWCNT composites mechanical behavour under dynamic load conditions
Biography
Biography: Prashant Jindal
Abstract
In this paper, we aim to enhance the static and dynamic mechanical strength of Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene (ABS) terpolymer by constituting it with small compositions of Multi Walled Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNTs). Composites of ABS/MWCNT were fabricated with various MWCNT compositions (1, 3, 5, 7, 10 wt%) in ABS. These were then characterized to obtain quasi-static mechanical properties like hardness and elastic modulus using nano-indentation technique. It was observed that hardness and modulus for 10 wt% MWCNT composition in ABS/MWCNT composites were enhanced by 49% and 61% respectively in comparison to pure ABS. The visco-elastic nature of ABS/MWCNT composites was also investigated at nano scale using Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA). Properties of ABS/MWCNT composites and pure ABS specimen were compared in dynamic mode for a loading frequency upto 200 Hz and it was observed that modulus of 10 wt% ABS/MWCNT composite was consistently higher by nearly 58% to 75% (upto 200 Hz) in comparison to that of pure ABS. The maximum strength for these composites under variable loading frequencies was achieved at lower loading frequencies, which indicated that properties of these composites enhanced up to loading frequencies of 100 Hz. Therefore, significant enhancement in mechanical strength of ABS was observed by composing minor compositions of MWCNTs (upto 10 wt%) without noticeable alteration in their weights, hence improving the prospects of ABS being used for engineering applications.