A microstructure-level material model for simulating the machining of carbon nanotube reinforced polymer composites

A continuum-based microstructure-level material model for simulation of polycarbonate carbon nanotube (CNT) composite machining has been developed wherein polycarbonate and CNT phases are modeled separately. A parametrization scheme is developed to characterize the microstructure of composites having different loadings of carbon nanotubes. The Mulliken and Boyce constitutive model [2006, "Mechanics of the Rate Dependent Elastic Plastic Deformation of Glassy Polymers from Low to High Strair Rates," Int. J. Solids Struct., 43(5), pp. 1331-1356] for polycarbonate has been modified and implemented to capture thermal effects. The CNT phase is modeled as a linear elastic material. Dynamic mechanical analyzer tests are conducted on the polycarbonate phase to capture the changes in material behavior with temperature and strain rate. Compression tests are performed over a wide range of strain rates for model validation. The model predictions for yield stress are seen to be within 10% of the experimental results for all the materials tested. The model is used to study the effect of weight fraction, length, and orientation of CNTs on the mechanical behavior of the composites.