Experimental and numerical analysis of composite lattice truncated conical structures with and without carbon nanotube reinforcements under axial compressive force

In the present paper the compressive behavior of composite lattice truncated cone reinforced with and without carbon nanotube (CNT) is investigated using experimental and numerical simulation methods. Composite lattice truncated cone samples, made of glass/epoxy without CNT and reinforced with 2% wt. CNT are fabricated using filament winding process and tested under compressive axial force. Moreover, modeling of the structure is performed and numerical simulation is achieved using commercial finite element ABAQUS software and the results of compressive force vs. axial displacement are verified by the experimental data and good agreement is observed. Halpin-Tsai micromechanics model is also utilized in order to calculate the nanocomposite material properties and assigned in the numerical simulation. The effects of CNT weight percentage and coefficients of CNT dispersion within the epoxy resin matrix are investigated using numerical simulation method. The results showed that addition of CNT by 2% wt. to the epoxy resin of the composite lattice conical structure, enhanced the maximum carried compressive force by 44%. While addition of CNT more than 2% wt. causes the compressive strength to be decreased due to less dispersion quality and agglomeration and non-uniform dispersion of the CNTs within the epoxy resin.