Rapid development of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) reinforced to polymer composites has been recently noticed in many aspects. In this work, the latest developments on fatigue and fracture enhancement of polymer composites with CNTs reinforcement with diverse methods are thoroughly compiled and systematically reviewed. The existing available researches clearly demonstrate that fatigue fracture resistance of polymer composites can be improved accordingly with the addition of CNTs. However, this work identifies an interesting research gap for the first time in this field. Based on the systematic reviewing approach, it is noticed that all previously performed experiments in this field were mostly focused upon studying one factor only at a time. In addition, it is also addressed that there were no previous studies reported a relationship or effect of one factor upon others during examining the fatigue fracture of carbon nanotubes. Moreover, there was no adequate discussion demonstrating the interaction of parameters or the influence of one parameter upon another when both were examined simultaneously. It is also realized that the scope of the conducted fatigue fracture studies of carbon nanotubes were mainly focused on microscale fatigue analysis but not the macroscale one, which can consider the effect of environment and service condition. In addition, the inadequacy of fatigue life predicting models via analytical and numerical methods for CNT-reinforced polymer composites have also been highlighted. Besides, barriers and challenges for future directions on the application of CNT-reinforced polymer composite materials are also discussed here in details.

The electrical property of polymer matrix composites with added carbon powder is studied based on the temperature dependency of the conduction mechanism. The temperature coefficient of the resistance of the polymer matrix composites below the percolation threshold (x) changed from negative to positive at 0.20 < x < 0.21; this trend decreased with increasing of the percolation threshold. The temperature dependence of the electrical property(resistivity) of the polymer matrix composites below the percolation threshold can be explained by using a tunneling conduction model that incorporates the effect of the thermal expansion of the polymer matrix composites into the tunneling gap. The temperature coefficient of the resistance of the polymer matrix composites above the percolation threshold has a positive value; its absolute value increased with increasing volume fraction of carbon powder. By assuming that the electrical conduction through the percolating paths is a thermally activated process and by incorporating the effect of thermal expansion into the volume fraction of the carbon power, the temperature dependency of the resistivity above the percolation threshold can be well explained without violating the universal law of conductivity.

This paper investigates the dependency of the critical content for electrical conductivity of carbon powder-filled polymer matrix composites with different matrixes as a function of the carbon powder content (volume fraction) to find the break point of the relationships between the carbon powder content and the electrical conductivity. The electrical conductivity jumps by as much as ten orders of magnitude at the break point. The critical carbon powder content corresponding to the break point in electrical conductivity varies according to the matrix species and tends to increase with an increase in the surface tension of the matrix. In order to explain the dependency of the critical carbon content on the matrix species, a simple equation (Vc* = [1 + 3(γc1/2 − γm1/2)2/(ΔqcR]−1) was derived under some assumptions, the most important of which was that when the interfacial excess energy introduced by particles of carbon powder into the matrix reaches a universal value (Δqc), the particles of carbon powder begin to coagulate so as to avoid any further increase in the energy and to form networks that facilitate electrical conduction. The equation well explains the dependency through surface tension, surface tensions between the particles of carbon powder.

Delamination crack detection is very important for improving the structural reliability of laminated composite structures. This requires real-time delamination detection technologies. For composite laminates that are reinforced with carbon fiber, an electrical potential method uses carbon fiber for reinforcements and sensors at the same time. The use of carbon fiber for sensors does not need to consider the strength reduction of smart structures induced by imbedding sensors into the structures. With carbon fiber reinforced (CF/) epoxy matrix composites, it had been proved that the delamination crack was detected experimentally. In the present study, therefore, similar experiments were conducted to prove the applicability of the method for delamination crack detection of CF/polyetherethereketone matrix composite laminates. Mode I and mode II delamination tests with artificial cracks were conducted, and three point bending tests without artificial cracks were conducted. This study experimentally proves the applicability of the method for detection of delamination cracks. CF/polyetherethereketone material has strong electric resistance anisotropy. For CF/polyetherethereketone matrix composites, a carbon fiber network is constructed, and the network is broken by propagation of delamination cracks. This causes a change in the electric resistance of CF/polyetherethereketone matrix composites. Using three point bending specimens, delamination cracks generated without artificial initial cracks is proved to be detectable using the electric potential method: This method successfully detected delamination cracks.