A distributed friction model for energy dissipation in carbon nanotube-based composites

Being lighter and stiffer than traditional metallic materials, nanocomposites have great potential to be used as structural damping materials for a variety of applications. Studies of friction damping in the nanocomposites are largely experimental, and there has been a lack of understanding of the damping mechanism in nanocomposites. A new friction contact model is developed to study the energy dissipation of carbon nanotube (CNT)-based composites under dynamic loading. The model incorporates the spatially-distributed nature of the CNT in order to capture the stick/slip phenomenon at the interface and treats the total slip force in a statistical sense. The effects of several parameters on energy dissipation are investigated, including the excitation’s amplitude, the interaction between CNT’s ends and matrix, the orientation, concentration, and diameter distribution of the CNTs inside the matrix. The results are in good agreement with experimental observations in the literature.