In this investigation, multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and graphene nanoplatelets were used to prepare two-phase and hybrid epoxy-based nanocomposites. Tensile and compressive mechanical properties of nanocomposites containing different amounts of MWCNTs and graphene nanoplatelets were determined using experimental, micromechanical, and numerical methods. Moreover, micrographs from samples’ fracture surfaces were obtained using field emission scanning electron microscope. Numerical simulations were carried out to investigate the effects of aligned and randomly distributed straight and sinusoidal MWCNTs and graphene nanoplatelets weight fraction on nanocomposite mechanical properties. To achieve our goals, three different sets of models consisting of MWCNTs, graphene nanoplatelets, and hybrid nano-fillers were analyzed. First, six different models consisting of aligned hybrid nanocomposite were analyzed to investigate the effect of arrangements of MWCNTs and graphene nanoplatelets on nanocomposites Young’s moduli. Then, models containing sinusoidal nano-fillers were generated based on the arrangement of the aligned model which had the best correlation with experimental measurements. Also, more realistic nanocomposite models consisting of randomly distributed straight nano-reinforcements were created to investigate the effects of reinforcement distribution on nanocomposite properties. To examine the accuracy of numerical simulations, Halpin–Tsai micromechanical method modified for hybrid nanocomposites was used. Numerical results were compared with micromechanical predictions and experimental measurements and good agreement was observed.
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