Investigating experimental and numerical effects of nano additives on distortion of cured unsymmetrical composite laminates

Predicting distorted composite laminates at the end of curing process is vital. In this study, the effect of adding clay nanoparticles with different percentages on the final distortion of an asymmetric glass/epoxy composites laminate has been investigated experimentally and numerically. A quasi-isotropic unsymmetrical configuration ([0₄/45₄/-45₄/90₄]) is investigated in this research. Also, a test setup has been utilized to determine the surface distortion. Then, the results were compared with numerical-analytical modeling with CLT assumptions for FEM model. Clay nanoparticles weight percentages of zero, three, five and seven are considered for experimental and numerical study. Results without clay nanoparticles indicated that the FEM analysis is in good agreement with the experimental study. Addition of clay nanoparticles showed significant reduction on the sample distortions after curing cycle. The normalized maximum displacements of the experimental specimens are reduced about 60% with increasing the clay nanoparticles weight percentage up to seven. The error between experimental and numerical samples in the weight percentages of zero, three and five is maximum 17%. But the error between experimental and numerical samples in the weight percentages of seven is 37%. Because of occurring agglomeration phenomenon in the weight percentages of seven, those results are not reliable.