Determination of compressive strength of unidirectional composites by three-point bending tests

A simple way for obtaining compressive strength of unidirectional composites by three-point bending tests is proposed in the present work. The interpretation of test results includes the stress singularity induced by the applied concentrated load and the determination of the contact zone between loading roller and specimen. Unidirectional carbon/epoxy composite T6T/F593 from Hexcel Composites has been tested by three-point bending with different thicknesses and spans. When failure occurs by compressive stresses, experimental results agree with the strength obtained by compressive tests. The best agreement is obtained in the case of 7 mm nominal thickness and span of 120 mm.     

Mechanical,low-velocity impact,and hydrothermal aging properties of flax/carbon hybrid composite plates

A hybrid of flax and carbon fibers was considered as an effective way to enhance the mechanical and hydrothermal resistance of flax-reinforced polymer composites. In this study, hybrid composites based on three layers of cross-ply flax fabrics, two layers of unidirectional carbon fabrics, and an epoxy resin were investigated in terms of the tensile, three-point bending, impact, and water absorption properties. The flax fabric reinforcement of the hybrid composites contributed to an improvement in the toughness, whereas the carbon fabric contributed to an improvement in their hydrothermal resistance and overall strength and stiffness. The hybrid composites with carbon fibers on the surface (CFFFC) exhibited brittle failure in the tensile test, whereas those with alternating layers (FCFCF) exhibited greater plastic deformation. In addition, the failure strain of the CFFFC samples showed a negative hybrid effect, whereas that of the FCFCF samples improved 63.5% compared with that of carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer composites. A positive hybrid effect on the impact performance of hybrid reinforced epoxy composites containing the unidirectional carbon fabric and cross-ply flax fabric was observed. At 40 °C and 80% relative humidity, the diffusion rate of water molecules in the FCFCF samples was 16 times that in the CFFFC samples.     

Numerical assessment of the analytical models used to determine flexural and shear moduli in I-Beams when the tensile and compressive moduli are different

The different compressive and tensile moduli of fibre reinforced composites have been considered in the analysis of the flexural and shear moduli of I-beams. Firstly, the neutral axis has been determined analytically and then, assuming that location of the neutral axis, the analytical flexural modulus of I-beams has also been obtained. In order to assess the proposed procedure, virtual pure bending and three-point bending tests at different spans have been carried out using the finite element method. The compressive and tensile moduli have been taken into account by defining two parts in the numerical models. The numerical flexural and shear moduli have been determined by reducing the data obtained in the virtual tests. Analytical and numerical results are in good agreement. Therefore, the flexural modulus determined by the proposed analytical approach can be introduced as a material property in the finite element method.     

Study of the carbon fiber–Poly(Ether–Ether–Ketone) (PEEK) interfaces, 4: influence of fiber–matrix adhesion on the mechanical properties of unidirectional composites

The aim of the last part of this general study is to analyze the influence of the interfacial properties and, more precisely, the adhesion energy, between carbon fibers and PEEK on the final performance of unidirectional composites. A set of mechanical properties, i.e. interlaminar shear strength, longitudinal tensile and compressive and transverse tensile properties, of different unidirectional laminates with the same content (60% by volume) of carbon fibers is determined. It is first shown that the interlaminar shear strength is constant, whatever the type of materials. Therefore, this test is not appropriate to characterize the strength of the fiber–matrix interface in PEEK-based composites. On the contrary, in agreement with previous work on other systems, it appears that the ultimate properties (longitudinal tensile and compressive as well as transverse tensile strengths and strains) of the laminates increase with the interfacial adhesion energy, whereas the stiffness of these composites remains unaffected in all cases.     

Compression after impact of flax/PLA biodegradable composites

A study of the impact behaviour and the post-impact residual strength of fully biodegradable composites is presented in this work. To this end, low-velocity impact tests and compressive residual strength tests were carried out on flax/PLA laminates. The results were compared with carbon/epoxy laminates, showing some important advantages in terms of absorbed energy and normalized residual strength. The reason was attributed to different energy absorption mechanisms; the main failure mode in flax/PLA laminates is fibre failure while residual strength of carbon/epoxy laminates is dominated by delaminations.     

聚氨脂改性环氧树脂注浆材料的研究

本研究是以聚醚型聚氨酯改性环氧树脂作为混凝土裂缝修补注浆材料。这种改性的环氧树脂注浆材料不仅弹性、韧性得到大大提高,而且仍具有较高的抗压与抗拉强度、高粘结性。本文讨论了该浆材不同溶剂、不同交联剂用量对浆液性能的影响,并用红外光谱对改性环氧树脂注浆材料进行了结构分析。     

Effect of thermal cycling and open-hole size on mechanical properties of polymer matrix composites

This paper investigates the effects of thermal cycling on mechanical degradation of polymer matrix composites (PMCs). Un-notched and open-hole specimens are tested using developed thermal cycling apparatus and tensile test machine. In addition, the hole-size effect of open-hole tension glass/epoxy composite laminates is investigated. The tensile strength, mass loss and surface degradation of the specimens were obtained during 250 cycles. Experimental results showed that the holes diameter is the main parameter to control the thermal cycling effects on open hole structure. Also, it is found that laminates with smaller holes have higher tensile strength variation than those with larger holes. The results showed that increment of the hole diameter and number of cycles decreases the tensile strength.     

Non-linear material characterization and numerical modeling of cross-ply basalt/epoxy laminate under low velocity impact

The low velocity impact behavior of basalt/epoxy composites, seen as an eco-friendly replacement of glass-epoxy composites, has not been studied systematically so far. Here, the elastic elasto-plastic properties, strengths, intralaminar and interlaminar fracture energies were determined. The intralaminar energies were determined using compact tension and compression tests. The elasto-plastic properties needed in the plastic potential were determined using off-axis test. These properties are used in Finite Element (FE) code with an elasto-plastic damage model developed earlier to simulate the impact response of cross-ply laminates basalt/epoxy laminates. Low velocity impact (LVI) experiments at 10 J, 20 J and 30 J are performed on these composites. The FE simulation is successful in capturing force, energy, deflection histories and damage zones showing a close match to the experiments. A comparison of impact force history and damage area (ultrasonic C-scan) of basalt-epoxy laminates with glass epoxy laminates having same volume fraction shows nearly similar peak forces but the major axis of the ellipsoidal damage zone was bigger in glass/epoxy laminates.     

Flexural and tensile moduli of flexible FR4 substrates

A flexible FR4 substrate is not only a core part of current integrated circuit assemblies, but also a promising material for flexible electronics applications. The thin composite sheet typically contains a single-ply of glass fabric which is impregnated with epoxy resin. The single-ply reinforcement leads to large heterogeneity along the through-thickness direction, which causes different behavior in the flexural and tensile moduli. However, no comparative study between the flexural and tensile moduli has been presented for commercialized flexible FR4 substrates. In this study, the flexural and tensile moduli of flexible FR4 substrates were measured using a three-point bending test and a direct tensile test, respectively. Three FR4 substrates were prepared with a different number of glass fabric plies and different types of epoxy resin, with a total thickness ranging from 100 to 150 μm. The effect of the span-to-depth ratio on the flexural modulus was first examined in order to obtain the true flexural modulus from the three-point bending test. For comparison, the strain was accurately measured using a video extensometer to obtain the tensile modulus. In-plane anisotropy and temperature dependence were also investigated for both the flexural and tensile moduli.     

Effect of strain rate on the dynamic tensile behaviour of UHMWPE fibre laminates

Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) fibre has great potential for strengthening structures against impact or blast loads. A quantitative characterization of the mechanical properties of UHMWPE fibres at varying strain rates is necessary to achieve reliable structural design. Quasi-static and high-speed tensile tests were performed to investigate the unidirectional tensile properties of UHMWPE fibre laminates over a wide range of strain rates from 0.0013 to 163.78 s⁻¹. Quasi-static tensile tests of UHMWPE fibre laminates were conducted at thicknesses ranging from 1.76 mm to 5.19 mm. Weibull analysis was conducted to investigate the scatter of the test data. The failure mechanism and modes of the UHMWPE fibre laminates observed during the test are discussed. The test results indicate that the mechanical properties of the UHMWPE fibre laminate are not sensitive to thickness, whereas the strength and the modulus of elasticity increase with strain rate. It is concluded that the distinct failure modes at low and high strain rates partially contribute to the tensile strength of the UHMWPE fibre laminates. A series of empirical formulae for the dynamic increase factor (DIF) of the material strength and modulus of elasticity are also derived for better representation of the effect of strain rate on the mechanical properties of UHMWPE fibre laminates.     

Effect of stress on the fire reaction properties of polymer composite laminates

A small-scale loading frame was used to apply tensile and compressive stresses to glass vinyl ester and glass polyester laminates in a cone calorimeter under a heat flux of 75 kW m⁻². It was found, for the first time, that stress has a small but significant effect on the fire reaction properties. Increasing tensile stress increased heat release rate and smoke production while shortening the time-to-ignition. Compressive stress had the reverse effect. This was attributed to the fact that tensile stress promotes the formation of matrix microcracks, facilitating the evolution of flammable volatiles. This hypothesis is further supported by the observation that stress has the greatest effect on the early heat and smoke release peaks, with a lower effect on the final ‘run-out’ values.Stress rupture (time-to-failure) curves were produced for tension and compression. In tension, the behaviour was fibre dominated, with times-to-failure being roughly 10 times those in compression. Compressive failure involved resin dominated local fibre kinking, initiated near to the rear face of the specimen. The failure time was determined by a significant proportion of the specimen reaching its glass transition temperature.     

Evaluating shape memory behavior of polymer under deep-drawing conditions

Thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU) are a popular family of shape memory polymers (SMP) due to their excellent abrasion & weather resistant, and mechanical strength. However, conventional processing operations or their combination with other polymers by adhesion or blending can affect their unique shape memory behavior. Currently, there are no effective methods to study and quantify the shape memory behavior of SMP based polymer laminates as they would respond to deep drawing operations. In this paper, a new method was introduced to effectively quantify the recovery behavior of TPU based polymer laminates undergoing simultaneous stretching and bending operations at different processing temperatures. The results presented show the value of developing a shape recovery characterization method that resembles the stresses of thermoforming to properly assess formability of shape memory polymers used in laminate constructions.     

Compressive-tensile fatigue behavior of cords/rubber composites

Cord/rubber composites are used to build complex structures which may be submitted to cyclic loads, sometimes leading to critical fatigue failure. The focus of this study is to investigate the cyclic compressive/tensile strain behavior of polyester, polyamide and hybrid polyaramid/polyamide cords. For that, the cords were embedded in rubber belts to be used in a specially designed rotating pulley equipment that allows monitoring and controlling of tensile force, frequency and strain level. All fatigue tests were performed using stress-control mode, and tensile residual strength of the cords was measured as a function of material type, number of cycles and compressive/tensile strain level. The results show that compressive and tensile cyclic strains decrease residual properties. Hybrid cords showed higher residual strength than polyester and polyamide cords when subject to high compressive strain or high number of cycles. Moreover, morphological evaluation indicated failure to be associated with microbuckling and extensive fibrillation.     

Effect of fiber length and composition on mechanical properties of carbon fiber‐reinforced polybenzoxazine

The mechanical strength and modulus of chopped carbon fiber (CF)‐reinforced polybenzoxazine composites were investigated by changing the length of CFs. Tensile, compressive, and flexural properties were investigated. The void content was found to be higher for the short fiber composites. With increase in fiber length, tensile strength increased and optimized at around 17 mm fiber length whereas compressive strength exhibited a continuous diminution. The flexural strength too increased with fiber length and optimized at around 17 mm fiber length. The increase in strength of composites with fiber length is attributed to the enhancement in effective contact area of fibers with the matrix. The experimental results showed that there was about 350% increase in flexural strength and 470% increase in tensile strength of the composites with respect to the neat polybenzoxazine, while, compressive properties were adversely affected. The composites exhibited an optimum increase of about 800% in flexural modulus and 200% in tensile modulus. Enhancing the fiber length, leads to fiber entanglement in the composites, resulted in increased plastic deformation at higher strain. Multiple branch matrix shear, debonded fibers and voids were the failures visualized in the microscopic analyses. Defibrillation has been exhibited by all composites irrespective of fiber length. Fiber debonding and breaking were associated with short fibers whereas clustering and defibrillation were the major failure modes in long fiber composites. Increasing fiber loading improved the tensile and flexural properties until 50–60 wt% of fiber whereas the compressive property consistently decreased on fiber loading. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analysis of a reversible five-point bending configuration based on a novel two-sense support

A novel two-sense support for flexural tests has been designed and manufactured in Ikerlan. The aim of this support is to do two-sense bending fatigue tests. In order to reduce the displacement corresponding to a given stress, a novel test configuration, designated as five-point bending, is modelled analytically. Basically, it is a three-point configuration with two supports at the ends that exert forces in the same sense as the applied load. In this way, a partial clamping is obtained that can be modelled by concentrated loads. The model has been checked carrying out quasi-static three-point and five-point bending tests at different spans in unidirectional carbon/epoxy composite specimens. Flexural modulus and the out-of-plane shear modulus have been obtained by linear regression in both cases, after having obtained experimentally the stiffness of the system.     

The mechanical properties of thermally treated 73/27 HBA/HNA copolyester

The mechanical properties of fiber molded samples and monofilaments of thermally treated 73/27 4‐hydroxy benzoic acid/2‐hydroxy‐6‐napthoic acid (HBA/HNA) copolyester have been investigated using both tensile tests and flexural three‐point bending tests. The thermal treatment which involves step annealing at temperatures well below the degradation temperature of the 73/27 system has been shown to produce branching and crosslinking in the crystalline regions of these polymers. The flexural strength of the degraded sample decreased up to 10% of the untreated fiber molded sample. In case of tensile strength of a single fiber, the values for the degraded samples are in line with the untreated fiber in the low draw ratio region while a slight decrease in tensile strength was observed in the high draw ratio region. The decrease in flexural and tensile strength appears to result from a small amount of branching and crosslinking reactions which arise uniquely in the orthorhombic phase of the 73/27 HBA/HNA copolyester. The branching and crosslinking would prevent the molecular orientation along flow direction in the molten state. For the fiber molded samples of degraded 73/27 HBA/HNA the destruction of the chain regularity along fiber axis direction was observed by wide‐angle X‐ray diffraction. The 73/27 HBA/HNA copolyester including 1 wt% of a crosslinked oligomer was used to simulate the branching and crosslinking of the degraded 73/27 HBA/HNA copolyester. Plots of tensile strength versus draw ratio were similar for the degraded 73/27 HBA/HNA and a copolyester which included 1 wt% of a crosslinkable oligomer. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fracture of modified epoxy resin at high loading rates

Notched fracture experiments have been conducted on polyepoxide-polyurethane interpenetrating polymer network specimens under three different testing conditions: (a) in a conventional tensile machine; (b) in three-point dynamic bending tests; (c) in a split Hopkinson's tensile bar apparatus. We describe the toughness determination within the strain rate range 10⁻⁴–10³ s⁻¹. The influence of the loading rate and of the polyurethane proportion on the K_1c toughness is analysed.     

碳布／聚芳醚酮热塑性复合材料的破坏允限

本文研究了碳布增强的聚芳醚酮复合材料的破坏允限。用二碘甲烷增强的x-射线照相法对试件内部的冲击缺陷进行观察,结果表明,其破坏类型可分为分层、基体开裂、纤维断裂和脱胶。用三点弯曲方法测定了损伤试件的剩余弯曲强度与冲击能量的关系。     

Enhanced mechanical properties of unidirectional basalt fiber/epoxy composites using silane-modified Na+-montmorillonite nanoclay

This study explores the effects of 3-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane (3-GPTS) modified Na-montmorillonite (Na-Mt) nanoclay addition on mechanical response of unidirectional basalt fiber (UD-BF)/epoxy composite laminates under tensile, flexural and compressive loadings. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and simultaneous thermal analysis (STA) data confirmed the reaction mechanism between the silane compound and Mt. It was demonstrated that addition of 5 wt % 3-GPTS/Mt resulted in 28%, 11% and 35% increase in flexural, tensile and compressive strengths. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) clarified the improvement in the adhesion between the basalt fibers and matrix in the case of Mt-enhanced epoxy specimens. Also, a theoretical route based on a Euler-Bernoulli beam-based approach was employed to estimate the compressive properties of the composites. The results demonstrated good agreement between theoretical and experimental approaches. Totally, the results of the study show that matrix modification is an effective strategy to improve the mechanical behavior of fibrous composites.     

PP-g-MAH对聚丙烯/滑石粉复合材料的性能影响

研究了两种马来酸酐接枝聚丙烯（PP-g-MAH）在不同含量时对聚丙烯（PP）/滑石粉复合材料的力学性能、雾化性能和线性膨胀系数的影响.结果表明,接枝物的加入能提高复合材料的拉伸性能、冲击性能和弯曲性能,但随着含量的增加拉伸强度、冲击强度和弯曲强度及弯曲模量有所降低.在含量相同时,接枝物1对冷凝组份的影响更小.复合材料的线性膨胀系数随接枝物含量的增加先减小后增加.