A SHEAR-LAG MODEL FOR CARBON NANOTUBE-REINFORCED MAGNESIUM MATRIX COMPOSITES

A shear-lag model is developed for carbon nanotube-reinforced magnesium matrix composites using the Micromechanics. The main morphological features of the nanocomposites are captured by utilizing a composite cylinder embedded with a capped nanotube as the representative volume element. The Micromechanics is employed to determine the effective Young's modulus of carbon nanotube reinforced composites based on its Microstructure. The capped nanotube is equivalently represented by an effective fiber having the same diameter and length but different properties of Young's modulus, which is determined from the Components of the composites.