An investigation on thermo-mechanical performance of graphene-oxide-reinforced shape memory polymer

Abstract

Based on micro morphology, a thermo-mechanical coupling model of shape memory graphene oxide/epoxy resin (SMGO/EP) was proposed. The heat transfer capability, mechanical property and shape memory ability of shape memory polymer (SMP) were further investigated. The reliability of the modeling was verified by comparing the heat transfer and shape fixation rate of the experimental and simulation data. The results showed that the maximum error of heat transfer was 6.04%, and shape fixing rate error was 2.33%. When the volume fraction of GO was 1.50 vol%, the maximum stress can reach 158.39 MPa, 46.52% higher than that of pure shape memory EP. With the increase in the volume fraction of GO in the SMGO/EP composites, the heat transfer enhancement and recovery rate of SMGO/EP were directly affected by the doping content of GO. The surface temperature of the composites with GO doping content of 1.50 vol% was 20.26°C higher than that of pure SMEP after heating for 300 s. Under the coupling effect of heat transfer and stress characteristics, the mechanism of shape memory effect of SMGO/EP composites was revealed. The thermo-mechanical coupling modeling of SMGO/EP can effectively predict the shape memory characteristics of the SMGO/EP composites.

Keywords

• graphene oxide
• thermo-mechanical
• heat conduction
• microstructures
• shape memory