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The paper reports an experimental investigation on the mechanical and thermal properties of multifunctional composite laminates integrated with microencapsulated phase change materials. The different microstructures were created by incorporating microencapsulated phase change materials in glass–epoxy composites at weight fraction between 0 and 20 wt.%. To characterise the mechanical properties, tension, compression and flexural tests were conducted. The scanning electron microscope studies were used to investigate the damage mechanisms associated with these loading conditions. Thermal storage capability of the multifunctional composites was characterised using heat flux meters. The apparent heat capacity of the composites was linearly proportional to the concentration of microencapsulated phase change materials. Alternative design analysis resulted in an optimised laminate configuration with high thermal storage capability coupled with excellent mechanical properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this study was to study the effects of length, alignment and diameter distribution of the carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on the percolation threshold of nanocomposites using computational simulations. Furthermore, the effects of the aforementioned parameters on the efficiency of the produced networks are investigated. The best distribution for optimum connectivity and the lowest CNTs concentration for the onset of percolation is determined via analyzing the geometrical characteristics of carbon nanotubes. The critical volume fraction of CNTs for percolation was found to be 0.1% while the mean number of bonds per object was 1.3 at the best distribution condition. The results from this study are compared to available experimental data and good agreement was found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]