Experimental study on the effect of MWCNTs on improving the natural frequencies of laminated composite beams

In this paper, a set of experimental studies are performed to improve vibrational properties of carbonnanotubes (CNTs)-reinforced composites. To better interfacial bonding between CNTs and polymer and also theenhancement of load transfer, a chemical treatment is performed on CNTs. Laminated MWCNT-reinforced polystyreneaminecomposite beams are fabricated based on the different CNT dispersion pattern through a beam thickness.Experimental modal tests are performed to measure fundamental natural frequencies of the fabricated composite beams.It is observed from the free vibration tests that the uniform distribution of MWCNTs results in an increase of 9.5% in thefundamental natural frequency of the polymer cantilever beam, whereas using the symmetric MWCNT distributionincreased its fundamental natural frequency by 17.32%.