Carbon nanotubes as a player to improve mechanical shock wave absorption

The overall goal of the research is to develop a composite simultaneously able to absorb mechanical shocks. In this paper, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) based polymers were used to enhance the wave absorption capacity against shock load. The material consists of an epoxy polymer reinforced with various concentrations of CNTs: 1%, 2% and 4 wt%. An experimental procedure was developed for material characterization. The specimen was sandwiched between two steel bars (incident and transmitted bars), with 20 mm in the diameter. The shock wave was generated by a launching device drives the striker to hit 1 bar, and then the wave propagates throughout the specimen. Two strain gauges were placed on the surface of each bar with 1 m of the distance from the specimen surface. The wave intensity was recorded using a data acquisition system (HBM GEN3i model). The full histories of strain, force and the energy absorption during the shock time were measured. With 4% mass fraction of CNTs, the shock wave intensity was reduced to 33.34% compared to 0% of CNTs. The results show also that the specimen with CNTs is able to absorb high energy impacts.