MULTI-OBJECTIVE GREEN DESIGN OPTIMIZATION OF CARBON NANOTUBE COMPOSITE ESTRUCTURES

C. MORILLO; D. S. LEE; S. SAGRISTA; G. BUGEDA; S. OLLER; E. OÑATE

Conferencia; 20th Annual International Conference on Composites or Nano Engineering; 2012

The remarkable mechanical properties exhibited by Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) have stimulated much interest in their use to reinforce advanced 'composites. So far, hundreds of publications have reported certain aspects of the mechanical enhancement of different polymer system by CNTs. Many of these studies have been discussed in an excellent review [1]. The variation of parameters, such as CNT type, growth method, chemical pre-treatment as well as polymer type and processing strategy has given some encouraging results in fabricating relatively strong CNT-polymer composites. Sustainability, cradle-to-grave' design, industrial ecology, eco-efficiency, and `green' chemistry are not just newly coined buzzwords, but form the principles that are guiding the development of a new generation of 'green' materials [2]. CNT composite materials are no exception to this new paradigm. The goal of this work is to apply a multi-disciplinary design optimization methodology in order to study the mechanical performance in terms of weight and stiffness of Carbon Nanotube Composite Structures (CNTCSs), considering additionally the sustainable design quantified through the Adherence to Green Design Principles (AGDP) of the polymer structure.