Role of CNTs on the Resistance to Delamination Growth in Three-Phase FRP Laminates with Embedded Delamination: Finite Element Analysis

The present work aims to investigate the effect of adding carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to epoxy on enhancing the resistance to growth of an existing embedded delamination in post-impact loading in a carbon/CNT + epoxy laminate. 3D finite element analyses are performed to determine the interlaminar stresses and strain energy release rate components at the elliptical delamination front which is elliptical using Irwin’s crack closure integral. Results show that a significant increase in resistance to growth of embedded elliptical delamination could be achieved by mixing CNTs to epoxy limited to a specific weight percentage of CNTs only.