Structural approach to calculation of the effect of moisture on elastic characteristics of organoplastics

Data have been obtained for the structural calculation of the effect of moisture on the elastic characteristics of organoplastics from the properties of components. The distribution of moisture between the fiber and matrix — the components of a unidirectional composite — is considered. The elastic properties of the fiber are determined by an inverse calculation using the experimental dependences of the composite and matrix on moisture. The moisture effect on the properties of the materials is taken into account with influence functions, which differ by more than 25% for various characteristics. The results can be used for calculating the elastic properties of composites with various reinforcement schemes and at the nonequilibrium distribution of the moisture concentration in an actual environment.Presented at the 10th International Conference on the Mechanics of Composite Materials (Riga, April 20–23, 1998).Institute of Polymer Mechanics, Riga, LV-1006, Latvia. Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 525–530, July–August, 1998.     

Shear creep of orthogonally reinforced spherofibrous composites

Our previous theory for the viscoelasticity of spheroplastics and two-phase structural models was used to construct stress creep and relaxation operators for shear of orthogonally reinforced spherofibrous composites. The operators were constructed using the Volterra principle, Rabotnov's fraction exponential kernels, and approximate analytical relationships for the integral composite characteristics. Operators were taken incorporating data on the rheonomic characteristics of the composite, components with hybrid, hollow, and other fiber types. Approximate formulas were obtained for operators convenient for studying stress creep and relaxation in elements of three-dimensional structures.A. A. Blagonravov Mechanical Engineering Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow. Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 32, No. 6, pp. 770–779, November–December, 1996.     

Creep and damage accumulation in orthotropic composites under cyclic loading

Experimental results and theoretical prediction of the response of glassfiber-reinforced polyester under quasi-static, static (creep), and cyclic (fatigue) loading are presented. The nonlinear strain component at static loading and the strain amplitude rate at cyclic off-axis loading of an orthotropic composite are shown to follow the associated flow rule with a single-parameter quadratic potential function. The influence of fatigue damage on deformation is considerable due to the reduction in the elastic modulus of the composite and is apparently negligible with respect to its effect on the parameters of the creep kernel.Presented at the 10th International Conference on the Mechanics of Composite Materials (Riga, April 20–23, 1998).Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 447–460, July–August, 1998.     

Effect of aging of the binder on the creep of polymer concrete

Two polyester concretes with diabase and marble fillers and aggregates are used as examples to illustrate the possibility of using a structural approach to evaluate the creep of the composite in the initial state and after preliminary aging under laboratory conditions for a period of 12–13 yrs. Experimental study of the creep of polymer concrete and its structural components (resin and binder) after preliminary aging at elevated temperatures (60, 90°) established that the change that occurs in viscoelastic compliance with aging conforms to the analogy principle with a reduction function that depends on aging temperature and time.Institute of Polymer Mechanics. Latvian Academy of Sciences Riga, Latvia. Central Laboratory of Physico-chemical Mechanics Sofia. Bulgaria. Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 32, No. 6, pp. 787–794, November–December, 1996.     

Creep in unidirectionally reinforced polymer composites

Conclusions We have explored here the possibilities of predicting the permanent creep in unidirectionally reinforced polymer composite materials from the results of accelerated testing of their components. The mutually independent components of the viscoelastic compliance tensor under conditions of creep have been calculated with the aid of the Laplace transformation and an earlier verified variant of determining the mean elastic characteristics of a composite material, whereupon the originals of the sought functions have been obtained by a numerical inverse Laplace transformation. Experiments were performed with unidirectionally reinforced materials, a glass-plastic, an organoplastic, a carbon-plastic, and a boroplastic, all tested in tension in the direction of fiber reinforcement and in the transverse direction, also in longitudinal shear. The possibilities of predicting the creep in composite materials with the aid of functions characterizing the viscoelastic compliance of the binder and obtained by the method of temperature-time analogy have been confirmed twofold: by long-duration (up to 3 yr) control tests performed on the given materials and by control calculation of the creep in these composite materials from results of direct long-duration (up to 5 yr) tests performed on specimens of the binder.Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, No. 2, pp. 215–223, March–April, 1984.     

Calculation of deformative and thermal properties of multiphase composite materials filled with composite or hollow spherical inclusions by the effective medium method

A theoretical investigation was carried out to examine the possibilities of a structural approach to prediction of elastic constants, creep functions, and thermal properties of multiphase polymer composite materials filled with composite or hollow spherical Inclusions of several types. The problem of determining effective properties of the composite was solved by generalizing the effective medium method, a variant of the self-consistent method, for the case of a four-phase kernel-shell-matrix-equivalent homogeneous medium model. Exact analytical expressions for the bulk modulus thermal expansion coefficient, thermal conductivity coefficient, and specific heat were obtained. The solution for the shear modulus is given in the form of a nonlinear equation whose coefficients are the solution of a system of 12 linear equations.To be presented at the Ninth International Conference on the Mechanics of Composite Materials, Riga, October 1995.Published in Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 31, No. 4, pp. 462–472, July–August, 1995.     

Analysis of elastomeric composites based on fiber-reinforced systems. 2. Unidirectional composites

The elastic properties of unidirectionally reinforced composite materials under large deformations are studied. The applied model for deformation of materials is based on the structural macroscopic theory of stiff and soft composites, including micro- and macromechanical levels of analysis of composite media. The properties of unidirectional elastomeric composites are studied in tension and shear in the plane of reinforcement. The microscopic fields in the structural components of composites having poorly compressible and compressible matrices are also analyzed. Changes in the parameters of macroscopic deformation of the composites are examined as functions of the loading parameters and initial conditions of the structure. The evolution of the structural changes in deformed composite materials is described.State Metallurgical Academy of Ukraine, Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine. Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 35, No. 1, pp. 29–50, January–February, 1999.     

Limiting stresses in spatially reinforced composites with components-having different structural geometries nd elastic properties

A model which is proposed for calculating structural stresses in spatially reinforced composites and an invariant-polynomial criterion for evaluating their limiting values are used to predict the effect of the elastic and strength properties of the components and their relative content on the limiting stress-strain state of composites of different structures. Emphasis is given to tri-orthogonal and 4D cubic structures, in addition to structures with hexagonal and angle-ply fiber reinforcement schemes in the plane and perpendicular to it. The types of composite loading typical of standard tests are examined in separate numerical experiments for shear, tension, compression, and their proportional combination. A computational variant of a criterional estimate of the limiting stresses is substantiated for an anisotropic composite of variable strength. The limiting-stress surface is obtained along with contour maps showing stress isolines as a function of the properties of the components and the geometry of the structure. The maps are suitable for practical use. The cases of maximum resistance to shear, tension, compression, and combination loading of 3D and 4D composites are compared to the analogous cases for two-dimensional structures.Presented at the Ninth International Conference on the Mechanics of Composite Materials (Riga, October, 1995).Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, No. 5, pp. 616–639, September–October, 1995.     

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.     

Multifibre polymer composites: Prediction of deformation and thermophysical properties

Conclusions A theoretical and experimental investigation was carried out to examine the possibilities of a structural approach for prediction of elastic constants, creep functions and thermophysical characteristics of hybrid polymer composites reinforced with anisotropic fibres of several types. The theoretical solutions were obtained by generalizing the self-consistent method for the case of a three phase model. The effects of brittle fibre breakdown under tension in the direction of reinforcement of a unidirectional hybrid composite were studied under conditions of a short-term loading and a long-term creep. It has been shown that a creep of viscoelastic fibres plays a principal role in creep of the hybrid composite. It is just this creep that significantly increases the fibre damage during creep of the composite.A variant of the solution has been proposed for predicting the thermorheologically complex behavior of hybrid composites containing not only elastic but also viscoelastic thermorheologically simple components with different temperature-time shift factors. The peculiarities of thermal expansion of hybrid composites and the possibilities for a purposeful control of thermal expansion coefficients by hybridization were studied. The considered thermal interval included a region of transition of the polymer matrix from a glass state into a viscoelastic one.The control tests were performed for specimens of organic/glass, organic/carbon, glass/carbon and organic/boron polymer composites with different ratios of fibre volume contents. On the whole, the obtained accuracy of predicting the characteristics of the examined hybrid composites may be considered as acceptable for engineering applications.Published in Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 30, No. 3, pp. 299–313, May–June, 1994.     

Prediction of the deformation properties of a polymeric composite with a granular-fibrous filler

Conclusion A variant of calculation of the characteristics of the deformation properties of a hybrid composite containing a complex disperse filler in the form of granular particles and short fibers was proposed. The effect of aggregation of the granular filler, the statistical distributions of the fibers by lengths and orientation in the material, and the anisotropy of the fibers are taken into consideration in the calculation. The statistical distribution of the orientation of the fibers is given by a function proportional to the distance from the center to the surface of a triaxial ellipsoid in the corresponding direction. The uniform random distribution of the fibers in bulk and in the plane is a special case of this distribution. The results of the analysis of the effect of the parameters of the statistical distributions of the length and orientation of short fibers on the elasticity characteristics of a composite are reported. The dependence of the creep of the composite on the ratio of the concentration of the components of the complex filler was determined, and the efficiency of partial replacement of a granular filler by a short-fiber filler to inhibit creep of the composite was demonstrated. The possibilities of predicting the long-term creep were experimentally confirmed on the example of LDPE filled with ground limestone and short glass fibers.Presented at the Sixth All-Union Conference on the Mechanics of Polymer and Composite Materials (Riga, November, 1986).Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, No. 5, pp. 898–909, September–October, 1987.     

Concentration of electroelastic fields in a composite piezoceramic plate with defects crossing the interface

The characteristics of fracture and strength of a composite piezoceramic plate with defects in the form of cracks and holes situated in both of the plate components are investigated. The corresponding boundary-value problems of electroelasticity are reduced to systems of singular integral equations by constructing integral representations of the complex potentials. The results of numerical realization of the constructed algorithms are reported.Presented at the 10th International Conference on the Mechanics of Composite Materials (Riga, April 20–23, 1998).Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 34, No. 6, pp. 777–786, November–December, 1998.     

Creep and long-time strength of unidirectional reinforced plastics in compression

An attempt is made to predict the creep and long-time strength of unidirectional reinforced plastics in compression in the direction of the reinforcement from the properties of the components. The reinforcement is assumed to be elastic, while the resin is described by a Boltzmann-Volterraintegral equation with fractional-exponential Rabotnov kernel. Experimentally obtained creep and long-time strength curves are presented for unidirectional reinforced plastics.Institute of Polymer Mechanics, Academy of Sciences of the Latvian SSR, Riga. Translated from Mekhanika Polimerov, No. 5, pp. 830–835, September–October, 1970.     

Elastic characteristics of ferrocement reinforced by hexagonal grids

The methods of the structural mechanics of composite materials are used to develop a method for predicting the elastic modulus and shear modulus of ferrocement reinforced with hexagonal woven and stamped grids. The method takes into account the elastic properties of the components and the geometry of the reinforcement.Riga Technical University, LV-1047 Latvia. Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, No. 2, pp. 182–186, March–April, 1997.     

Numerical identification of properties of particle-reinforced composite materials

The paper deals with numerical identification of the average elastic properties of particle-reinforced composite materials. The finite element method for the determination of deformation energy of the characteristic volume element was used. In earlier analytical investigations, an approximation function of the averaged elastic properties of the composite was derived. An identification procedure allows the estimation of the unknown approximation parameters from numerical experiments. The obtained functions describe precisely the numerical data for any relationships between constituents of the material.Presented at the 10th International Conference on the Mechanics of Composite Materials (Riga, April 20–23, 1998).Institute of Computer Analysis of Structures, Riga Technical University, Riga PDP-1658, Latvia. Institute of Materials Science, Department of Materials Science, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, D-06099 Halle, Germany. Published in Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 383–390, May–June, 1998.     

Singular approximation of the method of periodic components in statistical mechanics of composite materials

A quasi-periodic model is developed for random structures of composites, when the locations of inclusions are given in terms of random deviations from nodes of an ideal periodic lattice. Solution of the stochastic boundary problem of the theory of elasticity is examined for a quasi-periodic component by the method of periodic components, which is reduced to determination of the field of deviations from the known solution for a corresponding periodic composite. The solution is presented for the tensor of effective elastic properties of a quasi-periodic composite in singular approximation of the method of periodic components in terms of familiar solutions for tensors of the effective elastic properties of composites with periodic and chaotic structures and the parameters of the quasi-periodic structure: the coefficient of periodicity and the tensor of the anisotropy of inclusion disorder. A numerical calculation is performed for the effective transversally isotropic elastic properties of unidirectional fibrous composites with different degrees of fiber disorder.Perm' State Technical University, Russia. Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 33, No. 4, pp. 460–473, July–August, 1997.     

Mechanical Properties of Blends of Low-Density Polyethylene with Chlorinated Polyethylene

The results of experimental investigation into the mechanical properties of blends of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) with chlorinated polyethylene (CPE) in tension are presented. The specimens of pure LDPE, CPE, and nine types of LDPE/CPE blends, with different content of components at 10 wt.% intervals, were examined. Data on the influence of blend composition on the tensile stress-strain diagram, elastic modulus, yield stress, breaking stress, and ultimate elongation are obtained. The results of investigations of creep are also reported. It is found that the creep compliance (the total current compliance minus the elastic compliance) obeys the power law of creep.__________Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 41, No. 3, pp. 391–404, May–June, 2005.     

Deformation and strength properties of carbon-reinforced plastics in compression

The deformation and strength properties of unidirectionally reinforced carbon plastics have been experimentally investigated for uniaxial compression in the longitudinal and transverse directions and at 45° to the direction of reinforcement in both short-time and long-time tests. On the basis of the deformation properties of the components an attempt is made to describe the creep curve of the plastic in all three loading directions. The Mohr theory is used to predict the compressive strengths in the direction of reinforcement and at right angles to the reinforcement.Institute of Polymer Mechanics, Academy of Sciences of the Latvian SSR, Riga. Translated from Mekhanika Polimerov, No. 1, pp. 29–35, January–February, 1973.     

Elastic characteristics of ferrocement reinforced with woven meshes

Applying structural mechanics methods for composite materials, we have worked out a procedure for predicting the elasticity modulus, the shear modulus, and Poisson's ratio for ferrocement taking into account the elastic properties of the components, the wire diameter, the mesh size, and the distance between the meshes. The results make it possible to exploit the potential of such reinforcement to the fullest.Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 30, No. 4, pp. 526–530, July–August, 1994.     

Calculating 3D stresses in layered composite plates and shells

Advanced failure criteria for fiber composites account for all six components of the stress tensor. Plate and shell analysis, however, is sensibly performed by assuming the plane state of stress, which results in global displacements, cross-sectional membrane forces, and bending moments of suitable accuracy. Based on these results, equilibrium conditions can be applied to locally determine the stress components in the transverse direction. Therewith, the transverse shear stresses require first derivatives and transverse normal stresses even second derivatives of the membrane stresses. Higher-order finite elements would be necessary if these stress components are to be determined on the element level. To ease this deficiency, a procedure is proposed based on neglecting the in-plane derivatives of the membrane forces and twisting moments as well as the mixed derivatives of the bending moments. This allows us to reduce the order of differentiation by one. Applicability of this procedure is demonstrated by calculating the transverse shear and normal stresses for layered composite structures of different geometric dimensions and various stacking orders under mechanical as well as thermal loads. Comparison with results from 3D analyses shows excellent accuracy and efficiency of the proposed procedure.Presented at the 10th International Conference on the Mechanics of Composite Materials (Riga, April 20–23, 1998).Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (German Aerospace Center), Institute of Structural Mechanics, D-38022 BRAUNSCHWEIG, Germany. Published in Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 491–500, July–August, 1998.