Effect of Fuzzy Fiber Reinforcement on the Mechanical Response of FRC Structures Under Flexural and Compressive Loads

The effect of CNT fibers grown perpendicular to the carbon fiber in polymer-based composites is analyzed for two different problems of structural mechanics, namely, a thick beam under three-point bending and a square plate under uniform compression. The displacement-function modeling scheme has been used to obtain the analytical solution of the elastic fields of the problems. The relevant elastic properties of the three phase fuzzy fiber composites were developed analytically by the mechanics of materials approach. It is observed that the amalgamation of CNT fiber improves the flexural behavior of the beam for both axial and lateral orientations of carbon fibers, whereas, for the square plate under compression, the incorporation of fuzzy fibers improves the structural behaviors mainly for orientation of carbon fiber perpendicular to the loading direction. The results of the present investigation demonstrate the efficacy of using fuzzy fiber reinforcement in structural problems with respect to the orientation of carbon fibers offers optimized configurations of composites for specific uses.