Synergistic effect of MXene and CNT on the bending response of glass fiber-reinforced epoxy honeycomb cored sandwich nanocomposites: an experimental and numerical study

In this work, the bending behavior of honeycomb cored multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNTs) and Ti₃C₂T_x-MXene-reinforced sandwich composite plate was investigated. The face sheets and core material of the sandwich panel are made of MWCNTs/Ti₃C₂T_x-MXene-reinforced glass fiber epoxy composite. For this purpose, firstly, an analytical homogenization method was employed to predict the elastic properties of the face sheets and core. According to these initial parameters, a finite element model based on high-order shear deformation theory was developed to extract the bending characteristics of the sandwich composite structure, and the accuracy of the developed numerical model was verified experimentally using a three-point bending test and existing literature. Further, the face sheet bending stress and core shear ultimate strength were also investigated numerically and experimentally. Lastly, parametric studies were carried out to study the influence of the mass fraction of MWCNTs and MXene on the bending behavior. It has been ascertained that as the MXene/MWCNTs concentration increases, the load-carrying capacity of the composite panel increases. It was also observed that an increase in the weight fraction and aspect ratio of the nanoparticles led to a reduction in the values of non-dimensional central deflection. It can be concluded that the current work can provide guidance for the efficient design and development of carbon-based filler-reinforced sandwich composites to predict the static behavior of such nanostructures.