Investigation on mechanical behavior of multilayer graphene reinforced aluminum composites

In this paper, the mechanical properties of multilayer graphene embedded in aluminum matrix (GRA@Al) under uniaxial tension were investigated using molecular dynamics (MD) simulation method. The results clearly show that the graphene layer could provide effective barriers against the dislocation propagation across the interfaces resulting in the outstanding increment of the composite stiffness and strength. Moreover, five different simulation models are used to investigate the graphene layer dependency on the mechanical properties of the composites. It is found that the existence of the graphene has a significant influence on the Young's modulus, tensile strength and fracture strain. The influence on mechanical properties is mostly localized to the first two layers of graphene. With the increase of graphene layer, the mechanical properties remain nearly the same. The Al4C3 generated at the C–Al interface maybe the direct cause of this phenomenon.