Date of Award

January 2016

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Industrial Engineering (MSIE)

Department

Industrial Engineering

First Advisor

C.Richard Liu

Committee Member 1

Joseph Pekny

Committee Member 2

Ramses Martinez

Committee Member 3

Wenzhuo Wu

Abstract

In this study, the mechanical properties of the deposited coating consisted of copper nanoparticles and then the polymer carbon-based nano-composites are explored respectively through various mechanical tests. In the first part, laser-induced chemical solution deposition is introduced as a recently developed nano-manufacturing technique to deposit thin film of copper nanoparticles on the copper substrate. In order to assess the performance and properties of such porous nanostructured materials deposited by this method, the micro-structure of deposited material is characterized by SEM and its mechanical properties are investigated by a variety of experiments such as micro-hardness test, nano-indentation test, bending test and adhesion test. The mechanical properties of metals with surface deposition have been shown to be inherently strong to allow effective usage in industrial and other applications. In the second part, different types of nano-composites are studied: polymer matrix incorporated with two comparable nanoscale additives. The popular carbon nano-tube and graphene nano-platelets are introduced into epoxy matrix. Uniaxial tensile test and dynamic fatigue tensile test as well are conducted to evaluate the tension properties and performance of different polymer nano-composites. Both nanofillers show a decent improvement in ultimate tensile strength and Young’s modulus, especially for graphene nano-platelets which are particularly helpful in adding longevity of the fatigued composites.

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