Concerns about deteriorated nano-fiber reinforced composite as candidate for renewable energy applications
Abstract
Nanocomposite has become nowadays best candidate to be used for renewable energy applications due to its superior properties which open the doors for more prospects in term of the engineering challenges as well as economic opportunities. On the other hand, it cannot be avoided that the existence of internal defects through the manufacturing process of the materials. This lead to over consumption of the raw material in overcoming this weakness, especially stiffness of the composite materials that are intensively used to manufacture renewable energy structures and elements to reduce weight impact and hence minimize emissions. In this analysis, a deteriorated nanofiber reinforced composite is studied using finite element method to predict how the nano-debonding affects the stiffness of the composite. It is clearly evident that the major lost in the nano-composite stiffness was between 7.5-10% for the fully deterioration, whereas the minimum reduction was between 2-2.5% for the minimum defective RVE.