Abstract

Obtaining lighter materials, with more toughness and higher impact resistance, is getting larger is becoming of high interest in the current industry. It is possible to find lots of examples of different materials inspired in nature with gradient properties that are used for the development of hybrid materials. Also, various studies in granular materials show the possibility of confinement of the impact energy inside the material itself, allowing the decomposition of the initial pulse into several weaker pulses, the energy dissipation through several mechanisms and the gradual release of the non-dissipated energy. This article congregates the results of a preliminary design process and the fabrication of a granular hybrid material (ABS polymeric matrix and 0.25% of carbon nano layers as a reinforcement) initially in the form of a filament, subsequently utilised in the fabrication of viscoelastic layers. These layers will be fabricated using 3D printing techniques and will be introduced inside the structural material to improve its behaviour against impacts and to increase its energy dissipation capacity, which indeed is the main goal of this investigation. In the study, several non-destructive tests are shown for the morphological characterisation of the nanoreinforcement (SEM analysis) and for the examination of the reinforcement homogeneity in the hybrid material filament (Micro-CT analysis), as well as the application of a mathematical method via Voronoi diagrams to complement the results. By the realisation of mechanical tests, the improvement of the mechanical properties of the granular hybrid material is checked up.