Structure and Properties of Teflon Composites with Natural Diamond Powders

The results of experimental investigations of the structure and properties of composites based on polytetrafluorethylene (PTFE) containing natural diamond powders (NDP) of different dispersity are presented. To obtain diamond-containing compositions for antifrictional applications, we used a preliminary mechanical treatment of NDP (40 m) in a planetary mill. It was stated that the formation of the maximum ordered small-spherulite structure of PTFE after injection of NDP significantly increased the wear resistance and deformational and strength characteristics of the polymer composite materials. To produce abrasive materials, PTFE was filled with NDP having a larger graininess (from 40 to 125 m). It was found that the injection of NDP did not cause evident morphological changes in the binder — the bonds between diamond grains and the polymer are created by physicomechanical forces. To strengthen the adhesion interaction at the interface between the binder and diamond grains and to raise the wear resistance of the material, a complex modification of the polymer with inorganic and organic fillers was carried out. It is shown that the injection of the complex filler significantly improves the tribotechnical and operational properties of the diamond-containing composite material. The general laws of the influence of NDP on the formation of the supermolecular structure of PTFE are revealed. It is shown that, by varying the degree of dispersity and the content of NDP in PTFE, and by applying different methods of their injection into the polymer matrix, it is possible to control the operational properties of the composites and to produce materials of different functional application, from antifrictional to abrasive ones.     

Numerical investigations in structures with imperfect material interfaces and cracks

Natural fiber reinforced bio-polymers are in the focus of many research projects to understand and improve the mechanical behavior subjected to different process parameters during production. To provide safe and reliable light weight constructions, special interest is directed towards the damage and fracture behavior of such composite materials. Here, the material's behavior at the imperfect material interface between fiber and matrix plays an essential role and governs inelastic effects at the interfaces on the one hand, and the behavior of growing cracks on the other. The reduction of the elastic potential is related to both energy consuming processes in the system and in general is going along with a reduction of the crack tip loading and a shift of the crack growth direction. In this paper, the crack tip loading analysis in structures with perfect and imperfect material interfaces is presented and applied to different specimens. (© 2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Construction of inclusions with vanishing generalized polarization tensors by imperfect interfaces

We investigate the problem of planar conductivity inclusion with imperfect interface conditions. We assume that the inclusion is simply connected. The presence of the inclusion causes a perturbation in the incident background field. This perturbation admits a multipole expansion of which coefficients we call as the generalized polarization tensors (GPTs), extending the previous terminology for inclusions with perfect interfaces. We derive explicit matrix expressions for the GPTs in terms of the incident field, material parameters, and geometry of the inclusion. As an application, we construct GPT-vanishing structures of general shape that result in negligible perturbations for all uniform incident fields. The structure consists of a simply connected core with an imperfect interface. We provide numerical examples of GPT-vanishing structures obtained by our proposed scheme.     

Influence of the concentration of carbon nanotubes (CNT) on the thermophysical properties of epoxy/CNT nanocomposites at low temperatures

The influence of the content of carbon nanofillers (multi-and single-wall nanotubes) on the thermophysical properties of epoxy nanocomposites was investigated on the temperature range from −150 to 150°C. A “plateau” was found to exist in the concentration dependence of thermal conductivity on the concentration interval from 0.1 to 1.0 wt.% carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The thermal conductivity of the CNT composites exceeded that of pure epoxy resin by about 40%. A further increase in CNT content de creased the conductivity, owing to increasing interfaces between the two phases and the additional thermal resistance caused by phonon scattering on them. It is found that the temperature interval of transition of the composite from a glassy to a viscoelastic state greatly depends on the filler type and concentration. There exists a critical concentration at which a drop in the glass-transition temperature by 30% can be observed. The reason is the undercure of binder as a result of interaction between CNTs and epoxy macromolecules, which reduces the cross-linking density of structure of the polymer. Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 44, No. 5, pp. 697–708, September–October, 2008.     

Diamond-Fluoroplastic Composites for Abrasive Tools

Composite materials based on polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and natural technical diamond powders from Yakutia diamond deposits are developed. It is shown that the compositions based on PTFE and a technical diamond powder at a content of up to 60 wt.%, due to their good physicomechanical characteristics, low friction coefficient, and good wetting of diamond particles by polymer, make is possible to create abrasive tools for polishing and grinding hard metals and semiprecious and precious stones with high serviceability and operational life combined with a considerable increase in the quality of treated surfaces and operational stability of the tools. It is found that PTFE, being a more elastic and softer matrix than the traditional ones, exhibits a self-sharpening effect of diamond grains upon grinding hard surfaces, when the grains go deep into the elastic matrix, the matrix wears out, and the working part of the tool becomes enriched with the diamond powder. These conclusions are confirmed by electron microscopic investigations. It is shown that the introduction of ultradisperse fillings (up to 2 wt.%) into such compositions allows us to improve the characteristics of abrasive tools considerably, especially for grinding hard semiprecious stones. The physicomechanical and frictional characteristics of the compositions and specific examples of their application in the jewelry industry and in stone working are discussed.     

Measuring and modeling the thermal conductivities of three-dimensionally woven fabric composites

The effect of a three-dimensional fiber reinforcement on the out-of-plane thermal conductivity of composite materials is investigated. Composite preforms with different fibers in the thickness direction were fabricated. After in fusion by using a vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding process, their through-thickness thermal conductivities were evaluated. The measured thermal conductivities showed a significant increase compared with those of a typical laminated composite. Although the through-thickness thermal conductivity of the samples increased with through-thickness fiber volume fraction, its values did not match those predicted by the simple rule of mixtures. By using finite-element models to better under stand the behavior of the composite material, improvements in an existing analytical model were performed to predict the effective thermal conductivity as a function of material properties and in-contact thermal properties of the composite. Russian translation published in Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 45, No. 2, pp. 241–254, March–April, 2009.     

Dynamic electromechanical behavior of a triple-layer piezoelectric composite cylinder with imperfect interfaces

The dynamic electromechanical behavior of a triple-layer piezoelectric composite cylinder with imperfect interfaces is investigated. The composite cylinder is constructed by two elastic layers and an embedded piezoelectric layer. A linear spring model is adopted to describe the weakness of imperfect interface. The exact analysis is performed by the state space method and normal mode expansion method. The determining procedure for the eigenfunction and the proof of the orthogonal property of the eigenfunction is presented for an imperfectly bonded triple-layer piezoelectric composite cylinder. The obtained solution is valid for analyzing the dynamic electromechanical behavior of composite cylinder with arbitrary thickness for both elastic and piezoelectric layers. Numerical results show that the weakness of imperfect interface has significant effect on the transient electromechanical responses of piezoelectric composite cylinder.     

Covering properties which,under weak diamond principles,constrain the extents of separable spaces

We show that separable, locally compact spaces with property (a) necessarily have countable extent — i.e., have no uncountable closed, discrete subspaces — if the effective weak diamond principle ⋄(ω,ω,<) holds. If the stronger, non-effective, diamond principle Φ(ω,ω,<) holds then separable, countably paracompact spaces also have countable extent. We also give a short proof that the latter principle implies there are no small dominating families in ^ω ₁ ω.     

Study of the thermophysical and antifriction properties of polyethylene-based compositions

The results of a study of the effect of the filler properties (thermal conductivity, density, particle shape and size, percentage content) on the thermal conductivity of the composite are presented; the factors responsible for the increase in the thermal conductivity of the polymer are indicated. Formulas are recommended for calculating the thermal conductivity of composites based on polyethlene and various fillers.Institute of Polymer Mechanics, Academy of Sciences of the LatvianSSR, Riga. Translated from Mekhanika Polimerov, No. 2, pp. 259–266, March–April, 1973.     

A circular inhomogeneity with a mixed-type imperfect interface in anti-plane shear

We present a rigorous study of the problem associated with a circular inhomogeneity embedded in an infinite matrix subjected to anti-plane shear deformations. The inhomogeneity and the matrix are each endowed with separate and distinct surface elasticities and are bonded together through a soft spring-type imperfect interphase layer. This combination is referred to in the literature as a ‘mixed-type imperfect interface’ due to the fact that the soft interphase layer (described by the spring model) is bounded by two stiff interfaces arising from the separate surface elasticities of the inhomogeneity and the matrix. The entire composite is subjected to remote shear stresses and we allow for the presence of a screw dislocation in either the inhomogeneity or the matrix. The corresponding boundary value problem is reduced to two coupled second-order differential equations for the two analytic functions defined in the two phases (as well as their analytical continuations) leading to solutions in either series or closed-form. The analysis indicates that the stress field in the composite and the image force acting on the screw dislocation can be described completely in terms of three size-dependent parameters and a size-independent mismatch parameter. Interestingly, in the absence of the screw dislocation, the size-dependent stress field inside the inhomogeneity is uniform. Several numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the solution for a screw dislocation located inside the matrix. The results show that it is permissible for the dislocation to have multiple equilibrium positions.     

Structure analysis, fatigue testing, and lifetime prediction of composite steels

Composite steels prepared by technology of powder metallurgy are widely used as low cost parts with good resistance to wear, fracture, and corrosion. The development of powder composite steels is directly related to strength under vibration, fatigue stabilizing, and accurate lifetime prediction for actual composite topology. The fatigue behavior of powder steels was studied by experimental and numerical methods of composite mechanics and materials sciences. The chemical composition of composite steel is a pure iron powder as the base material and a handful of carbon, chromium, nickel, or phosphorus powders. The powder multi-component mixture is compacted by cold isostatic pressing to a rectangular form. The compactants are sintered in protective atmosphere. The microscale examination of the composite structure included an METAM-RV-21 metallographic optic microscope with a high-resolution ScanNexIIc scanner and an image processing package on the PC platform. The phase composition of powder steels has complex disordered topology with irregular ferrite/austenite grains, iron carbide inclusions, and pores. The microstructure images are treated according to the theory of stochastic processes as ergodic probability functions; statistical moments and a structural covariance function of the composite steels are given. The microscale stress-strain state of the composite steel is analyzed by finite element methods. The stiffness matrix of the composite steel is also presented together with stiffness matrices of ferrite/austenite grains, iron carbide inclusions, and pores as zero matrices. Endurance limits of the microstructural components are described by the Basquin or Coffin-Manson laws, respectively, as high and low cycle fatigue; cumulative microdamage in loading with a variable amplitude is taken from the Palmgren-Miner rule. Planar specimens were tested by console bending. Symmetric fatigue cycling was performed at a stable frequency of 20 Hz with endurance limits up to 5·10⁶ cycles. The probabilistic S-N curves were studied for various types of the composite steels. The fatigue properties of the structural components such as ferrite/austenite grains and carbide particles were defined by the microscale stress-strain modeling. Structural impact on the fatigue lifetime was computed; the probabilistic fatigue curves of the composite steels of various phase compositions are given. The prediction of cyclic lifetime and fatigue testing show good agreement for the powder composite steels studied.Presented at the 10th International Conference on the Mechanics of Composite Materials (Riga, April 20–23, 1998).Perm' State Technical University, Russia. Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 371–382, May–June, 1998.     

Effective conductivity of a composite material with stiff imperfect contact conditions

We present an analytic and numerical analysis of several properties of a composite material with stiff imperfect interface conditions. Spaces of functions are identified wherewe can guarantee existence and uniqueness of solutions. In particular, formulas for the temperature distribution and flux are exhibited. Numerical calculations of the material characteristics such as temperature, flux and the effective conductivity are also performed and interpreted. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Deformation of composites with arbitrarily oriented orthotropic fibers under matrix microdamages

In the present work, a model of nonlinear deformation of stochastic composites under microdamaging is developed for the case of a composite with orthotropic inclusions, when microdefects are accumulated in the matrix. The composite is treated as an isotropic matrix strengthened by triaxial arbitrarily oriented ellipsoidal inclusions with orthotropic symmetry of the elastic properties. It is assumed that the process of loading leads to accumulation of damage in the matrix. Fractured microvolumes are modeled by a system of randomly distributed quasispherical pores. The porosity balance equation and relations for determining the effective elastic modules in the case of orthotropic components are taken as basic relations. The fracture criterion is specified as the limiting value of the intensity of average shear stresses acting in the intact part of the material. On the basis of the analytic and numerical approach, we propose an algorithm for the determination of nonlinear deformation properties of the investigated material. The nonlinearity of composite deformations is caused by the finiteness of deformations. By using the numerical solution, the nonlinear stress–strain diagrams are predicted and discussed for an orthotropic composite material for various cases of orientation of inclusions in the matrix.     

Thermal conductivity of organoplastics

The dependence of the thermal conductivity of a unidirectional reinforced organoplastic on the fiber volume fraction as well as thermal conductivity and structural porosity of the components was studied experimentally and using mathematical models. These results may be used to develop new methods for the manufacture of plastic items and the nondestructive thermal monitoring of the structural parameters of these items.Institute of Polymer Mechanics, Latvian Academy of Sciences, LV-1006 Riga, Latvia. Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 33, No. 2, pp. 269–277, March–April, 1997.     

Experimental and numerical investigation of metal foams undergoing large deformations

Open cell aluminum metal foams are a new kind of material that are used in composite structures to reduce their weight, to increase their sound or energy absorption capability or to decrease their thermal conductivity. The design and analysis of such structures requires a macroscopic constitutive model of the foam that has to be determined by various experiments under different loading conditions. We support this procedure by analyzing the microstructure of the metal foam numerically under large deformations. To this end, we employ the finite cell method that can deal with large deformations and allows for an automatic and efficient discretization of the CT-image of the foam. (© 2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Delamination of Grain-Interfaces in Silicon Nitride

Intergranular cracking due to delamination of grain interfaces along with the development of bridging grains is the most important mechanism for the high fracture toughness of silicon nitride. In this line, an interface behavior, which is extending the Coulomb friction concept into the tensile domain has been implemented into a thermodynamical consistent frame work of Helmholtz free energy and dissipation. The model is used to describe the fracture process in a simple model geometry with a β-Si₃N₄ grain embedded into a precracked matrix of oxynitride glass. The material model considers the thermoelastic anisotropy of the grain and the thermal residual stresses, which evolve during the cooling of the model from the glass transition temperature to room temperature. (© 2011 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Analysis of flow and thermal field in nanofluid using a single phase thermal dispersion model

Flow and thermal field in nanofluid is analyzed using single phase thermal dispersion model proposed by Xuan and Roetzel [Y. Xuan, W. Roetzel, Conceptions for heat transfer correlation of nanofluids, Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer 43 (2000) 3701–3707]. The non-dimensional form of the transport equations involving the thermal dispersion effect is solved numerically using semi-explicit finite volume solver in a collocated grid. Heat transfer augmentation for copper–water nanofluid is estimated in a thermally driven two-dimensional cavity. The thermo-physical properties of nanofluid are calculated involving contributions due to the base fluid and nanoparticles. The flow and heat transfer process in the cavity is analyzed using different thermo-physical models for the nanofluid available in literature. The influence of controlling parameters on convective recirculation and heat transfer augmentation induced in buoyancy driven cavity is estimated in detail. The controlling parameters considered for this study are Grashof number (10³ < Gr < 10⁵), solid volume fraction (0 < ? < 0.2) and empirical shape factor (0.5 < n < 6). Simulations carried out with various thermo-physical models of the nanofluid show significant influence on thermal boundary layer thickness when the model incorporates the contribution of nanoparticles in the density as well as viscosity of nanofluid. Simulations incorporating the thermal dispersion model show increment in local thermal conductivity at locations with maximum velocity. The suspended particles increase the surface area and the heat transfer capacity of the fluid. As solid volume fraction increases, the effect is more pronounced. The average Nusselt number from the hot wall increases with the solid volume fraction. The boundary surface of nanoparticles and their chaotic movement greatly enhances the fluid heat conduction contribution. Considerable improvement in thermal conductivity is observed as a result of increase in the shape factor.     

Thermal conductivity of unidirectionally reinforced hybrid composites

Conclusion The thermal conductivity of organic-glass, organic-carbon, and carbon-glass plastic in dependence on the volumetric content of organic, glass, and carbon fibers was experimentally investigated. The solution for transverse thermal conductivity of unidirectional hybrid composite, obtained in [8] by generalizing the method of self-congruence to the case of a triphase model, is in satisfactory agreement with the experimental data.Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, No. 5, pp. 817–822, September–October, 1990.