Fracture strength of class II slot cavities restored with polymerizable restorative materials

This study compared the fracture strength of Class II slot cavities restored with polymerizable restorative materials. Sixty, caries-free, posterior teeth were divided into five groups of 12 teeth. The Class II slot cavities were prepared. The teeth were restored with two packable composites (Filtek P60, Surefil), a microhybrid composite (Filtek Z250)and two ormocer (Definite, Admira). The restorations were then subjected to fracture resistance tests. The marginal ridges of the restorations were loaded at an angle of 13.5° to the long axis of the tooth in an Universal Testing Machine until failure. Analysis of mean forces indicated that, Filtek P60, Surefil and Filtek Z250 exhibited better performance than Definite and Admira. The tested resin composites differed in their mechanical properties. This study suggested that fracture behavior were highly influenced by the filler system. Overall, Filtek P60, Surefil, Filtek Z250, demonstrated good fracture resistance. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stress Distribution in an Elastic Body with a Periodically Curved Row of Fibers

Within the framework of a piecewise homogeneous body model, with the use of exact three-dimensional equations of elasticity theory for anisotropic bodies, a method is developed for investigating the stress distribution in an infinite elastic matrix containing a periodically curved row of cophasal fibers. It is assumed that fiber materials are the same and fiber midlines lie in the same plane. The self-balanced stresses arising in the interphase in uniaxial loading the composite along the fibers are investigated. The influences of problem parameters on these stresses are analyzed. The corresponding numerical results are presented.     

Limit Regimes of Braking of Disc-Type Composite Flywheels Made by Filament Winding

A set of invariants describing the limit regimes of braking disk-type wound composite flywheels is suggested. The limit regime is determined by using a linear failure criterion. It is shown that, for generating short-time impulses of very high power, a set of small identical flywheels is more effective than one large flywheel with an equivalent mass. Particular examples illustrating the theory considered are discussed.     

Mesh-Independent Modeling and Moiré Interferometry Studies of Damage Accumulation in Open-Hole Composite Laminates

Mechanics of Composite Materials - A three-dimensional ply-level modeling of multiple matrix cracking near an open hole in a quasi-isotropic composite laminate was performed. A mesh-independent...     

Bounds for non‐periodic mixtures of infinitely many materials

We prove bounds on the homogenized coefficients for general non‐periodic mixtures of an arbitrary number of isotropic materials, in the heat conduction framework. The component materials and their proportions are given through the Young measure associated to the sequence of coefficient functions. Upper and lower bounds inequalities are deduced in terms of algebraic relations between this Young measure and the eigenvalues of the H‐limit matrix. The proofs employ arguments of compensated compactness and fine properties of Young measures. When restricted to the periodic case, we recover known bounds. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical analysis of a model of cure process for composites

We consider a composite material composed of fibres included in a resin which becomes solid when it is heated up (reaction of reticulation). The mathematical modelling of the cure process is given by a kinetic equation describing the evolution of the reaction of reticulation coupled with the heat equation. In this paper, we are interested in the computation of approximate solutions. We propose a family of discretized problems depending on two parameters (β₁, β₂) ε [0, 1]² which split the linear and non‐ linear terms in implicit and explicit parts. We prove the stability and convergence of the discretization for any (β₁, β₂) ε [½, 1 ] × [0, 1]. We present also some numerical results. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The shear modulus in the fiber direction of unidirectional fiber composites based on the concept of mesophase

A new and accurate relationship for the shear modulus in the fiber direction of unidirectional fiber composites is derived, based on the Kerner model concepts but not using its approximate relationships. Furthermore, this model is extended by taking into account the mesophase between the fiber and the matrix accomodating smoothly the mechanical properties between neighbouring phases. The introduction of the mesophase results in an improvement of the theoretical predictions, which now approach close to experimental values for the moduli of different fibrous composites.     

Micromechanics of ferroelectric polymer-based electrostrictive composites

Electrostriction refers to the strain induced in a dielectric by electric polarization, which is usually very small for practical application. In this paper, we present a micromechanical analysis on the effective electrostriction of a ferroelectric polyvinylidene fluoride trifluoroethylene [P(VDF-TrFE)] polymer-based composite, where the exact connections between the effective electrostrictive coefficients and effective elastic moduli are established, and numerical algorithm for the prediction of the effective electrostrictive coefficients of the composite in terms of its microstructural information is developed. From our calculations, enhanced electrostriction in the composite has been demonstrated, and optimal microstructure for electrostriction enhancement has been identified. Our analysis provides a mechanism for the electrostriction enhancement, where the electrostrictive strain several times higher than that of polymer matrix can be obtained, if the microstructure of the composites can be carefully tailored.     

Effect of the pore surface modification of an inorganic substrate on the plasma‐grafting behavior of pore‐filling‐type organic/inorganic composite membranes

We have investigated the effect of the surface state and surface treatment of the pores of an inorganic substrate on the plasma‐grafting behavior of pore‐filling‐type organic/inorganic composite membranes. Shirasu porous glass (SPG) was used as the inorganic substrate, and methyl acrylate was used as the grafting monomer. The grafting rate increased as the density of silanol on the SPG substrate increased. This result suggests that radicals are generated mainly at the silanol groups on the pore surface by plasma irradiation. The SPG substrates were treated with silane coupling agents used to control the mass of organic material bonded to the pore surface. The thickness of the grafted layer became thinner as the mass of organic material bonded to the pore surface of SPG increased. This decrease in the thickness of the grafted layer could be explained by the decrease in the penetration depth of vacuum ultraviolet rays contained in plasma having a wavelength of less than 160 nm that generated radicals in the pores of the substrate. The thickness of the grafted layer inside the SPG substrates could be controlled through the control of the mass of organic material bonded to the pore surface of the SPG substrate. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 44: 846–856, 2006     

Investigation of sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone sulfone)/heteropolyacid composite membranes for high temperature fuel cell applications

The sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone sulfone) (SPEEKS)/heteropolyacid (HPA) composite membranes with different HPA content in SPEEKS copolymers matrix with different degree of sulfonation (DS) were investigated for high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells. Composite membranes were characterized by Fourier transfer infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). FTIR band shifts suggested that the sulfonic acid groups on the copolymer backbone strongly interact with HPA particles. SEM pictures showed that the HPA particles were uniformly distributed throughout the SPEEKS membranes matrix and particle sizes decreased with the increment of copolymers' DS. The holes were not found in SPEEKS‐4/HPA30 (consisting of 70% SPEEKS copolymers with DS = 0.8 and 30% HPA) composite membrane after composite membranes were treated with boiling water for 24 h. Thermal stabilities of the composite membranes were better than those of pure sulfonated copolymers membranes. Although the composite membranes possessed lower water uptake, it exhibited higher proton conductivity for SPEEKS‐4/HPA30 especially at high temperature (above 100 °C). Its proton conductivity linearly increased from 0.068 S/cm at 25 °C to 0.095 S/cm at 120 °C, which was higher than 0.06 S/cm of Nafion 117. In contrast, proton conductivity of pure SPEEKS‐4 membrane only increased from 0.062 S/cm at 25 °C to 0.078 S/cm at 80 °C. At 120 °C, proton conductivity decreased to poor 0.073 S/cm. The result indicated that composite membranes exhibited high proton conductivity at high temperature. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 44: 1967–1978, 2006