The thermal expansion properties of the MWCNT/epoxy nanocomposites were measured using a TMA equipment MEK inhibitor (TMA-50, Shimadzu Co., Kyoto, Japan). The TMA measurement methodology is described as follows: a rectangular sample (3 cm wide, 3 cm long) was cut from the nanocomposites at a point 3 cm from the parallel portion of the tensile test specimen (according to JIS K 7197 [22]). Specimens were heated from 30°C to 120°C at a scanning rate of 5°C/min in air for continuous measurements. The thermal expansion properties of pure epoxy were similarly

measured for the same specimen size and test conditions. Note that the highest test temperature, i.e., 120°C, is close to the glass transition point of bisphenol-F epoxy resin, which usually ranges from 120°C to 130°C, depending on fabrication conditions. In our tests, it was found that even at 120°C, the obtained thermal expansion rates were still normal and a molten or rubber-like state in epoxy was not identified. Comparison Figure 9 shows the comparison between the thermal expansion properties of the MWCNT/epoxy nanocomposites as determined by multi-scale numerical simulations, theoretical analysis, and experimental measurement. In Figure 9a, for selleck products uni-directional models, the comparison between the thermal expansion properties by multi-scale

numerical simulation and theoretical prediction was given, in which the relative difference is lower than 15% for the results. In Figure 9b,c, for multi-directional models, the comparisons of experimental, simulated, and theoretical results were shown for different CNT contents (i.e., 1

and 3 wt%). It can be found that the multi-scale numerical simulation results possess a similar trend to the theoretical prediction and experimental measurement as temperature increases. It should be noted that the relative difference is also lower than 15% for all three results. This implies that the present multi-scale numerical simulation is effective in predicting the thermal expansion properties of CNT-based nanocomposites under the condition that the CNT is of a comparatively large size and a good dispersion state in see more matrix. Figure 10 shows the influence of CNT loading on the thermal expansion rates of the MWCNT/epoxy nanocomposites at high temperature (120°C), which was evaluated by experimental, simulated, and theoretical approaches. From this figure, it can be found that the thermal expansion rate obtained by experiments decreases about 25% at 1 wt% and 35% at 3 wt%. Moreover, a similar trend is observed at a broad temperature range from 30°C to 120°C, in which the thermal expansion rate decreases with CNT loading for each case, and the present numerical simulation and theoretical analysis can effectively predict the experimental measurements.