Effect of Notch Root Radius on the Fracture Toughness of Epoxy and 0.5 wt% Amino MWCNTs-Reinforced Nanocomposite

Significantly improved fracture toughness can be imparted by introducing amino multi-walled carbon nanotubes to neat epoxy resin. The present work reports on the fracture toughness evaluation of neat epoxy resin and its nanocomposite. Both the materials with varied finite notch root radii ρ, (in the range of 110–750 µm) are subjected to mode-I (tensile) fracture. The study reveals that the critical notch root radius (below which the apparent fracture toughness KIQ does not vary with ρ) of neat epoxy is 340 µm and the same for nanocomposite is 300 µm.