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.     

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.     

Structural theory of the tensile and compressive strengths of reinforced plastics

The strength conditions of unidirectionally and orthogonally reinforced plastics subjected to uniaxial tension and compression in the direction of, and at an angle to, the reinforcement are developed, with consideration given to possible failure of the fibers, binder, or the bond between the fibers and binder. Proposed strength conditions take into account the structure of the material, the properties of its components, and stress concentration.Institute of Polymer Mechanics, Academy of Sciences of the Latvian SSR, Riga. Translated from Mekhanika Polimerov, No. 6, pp. 988–995, November–December, 1975.     

高体积百分比颗粒增强聚合物材料的有效粘弹性性质

聚合物材料通常表现为粘弹性性质．为了改进聚合物材料的力学性能,通常将某种无机材料以颗粒或纤维的形式填充到聚合物中,从而得到增强、增韧的聚合物基复合材料．提出了一个新的细观力学模型,用于预测颗粒增强聚合物复合材料的有效粘弹性性质,尤其针对高体积百分比的颗粒夹杂复合材料,该方法基于Laplace变换和双夹杂相互作用的弹性模型．计算了玻璃微珠/ED-6复合材料的有效松弛模量以及恒应变率下的应力应变关系．计算结果表明在高体积百分比下该文方法比基于Mori Tanaka方法预测的粘弹性效应明显减弱．     

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.     

Study of moisture absorption by an organoplastic

Conclusion A complex experimental study of the state of sorbed moisture in a unidirectionally reinforced organoplastic was conducted. The methods of TG, DSC, DTA, and NMR showed that moisture absorption in OP is reversible up to 8%, the sorbed moisture does not crystallize in the temperature range from –70 to 0 °C, it is finely dispersely distributed and is in the strongly and weakly bound state, and there is almost no free moisture. The results of the sorption experiments conducted on OP and its structural components: microplastic and EDT-10 binder, in a wide range of temperature-humidity conditions and the data from physical studies showed that moisture absorption in the materials basically takes place by diffusion and is satisfactorily described by a phenomenological model based on the Fick equation.A method of accelerated determination of the sorption characteristics of anisotropic composite materials was developed, using the introduced concept of the fictitious diffusion coefficient and the extrapolation method of determining the limiting moisture content. The features of migration of moisture on the interface in a multiphase system were investigated, and the possibility of successive calculation estimation of the sorption characteristics of an organoplastic at different structural levels was demonstrated: components—unidirectionally reinforced composite—model laminated article. The tested phenomenological model of the sorption process and the experimentally obtained values of the characteristics of the material were the basis for a method of calculation determination of the resource of moisture-proofing properties of a model multilayer article of CM in nonstationary external conditions.Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, No. 4, pp. 624–632, July–August, 1990.     

Creep of polymer concrete in the nonlinear region

Two polyester-based polymer concretes with various volume content of diabase as an extender and aggregate are tested in creep under compression at different stress levels. The phenomenological and structural approaches are both used to analyze the experimental data. Common features of changes in the instantaneous and creep compliances are clarified, and a phenomenological creep model which accounts for the changes in the instantaneous compliance and in the retardation spectrum depending on the stress level is developed. It is shown that the model can be used to describe the experimental results of stress relaxation and creep under repeated loading. Modeling of the composite structure and subsequent solution of the optimization problem confirm the possibility of the existence of an interphase layer more compliant than the binder. A direct correlation between the interphase volume content and the instantaneous compliance of the composite is revealed. It is found that the distinction in nonlinearity of the viscoelastic behavior of the two polymer concretes under investigation can be due to the difference in their porosity. Submitted to the 11th International Conference on Mechanics of Composite Materials (Riga, June 11–15, 2000.) Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 36, No. 2, pp. 147–164, 2000.     

Thermal deformation of unidirectionally reinforced hybrid composites. Report no. 1

Conclusion We conducted a dilatometric study of three types of hybrid unidirectionally reinforced composites (organic-glass-, organic-carbon-, and carbon-glass-fiber plastics), each of which was represented by several batches differing in the relative content of the two types of fibers. The tests were performed on a specially-designed laboratory prototype. It was shown that, for the materials studied, the coefficient of linear expansion can be controlled by means of hybridization — by combining several types of fibers with positive and negative values of the coefficient of linear expansion in one composite. Analytic expressions for the coefficient that were obtained by generalizing a three-phase model of a two-component composite with isotropic fibers to the case of a hybrid composite with anisotropic fibers satisfactorily describe the experimental data.Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, No. 2, pp. 229–236, March–April, 1989.     

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.     

Optimization of a cylindrical composite shell with a viscoelastic core in axial compression

The problem of the optimal design of a composite shell in creep is formulated. The progressive buckling of a cross-wound reinforced cylindrical shell supported on a viscoelastic core is considered as a particular case. The reinforcement structure and shell thickness corresponding to minimum weight for a given load and service life are found.Institute of Polymer Mechanics, Academy of Sciences of the Latvian SSR, Riga. Translated from Mekhanika Polimerov, No. 3, pp. 442–446, May–June, 1975.     

On subcritical development of a shear crack in a composite with viscoelastic components

We present results of an investigation of the development of a transverse shear crack in a composite material with linearly viscoelastic components under external shear load. The solution is divided into the following two main stages: determination of the time dependence of the crack tip opening displacement and determination of the crack-growth kinetics as a result of the solution of integral equations. In the first stage, we use the solution of the corresponding elastic problem of determination of the crack opening displacement and the problem of determination of the effective moduli of the composite reinforced with unidirectional discrete fibers. Using the theoretically proved principle of elasto-viscoelastic analogy and the method of Laplace inverse transformation, we obtain a solution in a time domain. In the second stage, using the criterion of critical crack opening displacement for a transverse shear crack and an equation for the viscoelastic crack opening displacement of this crack, we construct an equation of crack growth. We present results of the numerical solution, which illustrate the influence of relations between the relaxation parameters of the materials of the components on the durability of the body with a crack.     

Creep prediction of a layered fiberglass plastic

The results of short-term creep tests of a layered glass fiber/polyester resin plastic in tension at angles of 90, 70, and 45° to the direction of the principal fiber orientation are presented. The applicability of the principle of time-temperature analogy for the prediction of long-term creep of the composite and its structural components is revealed. The possibility of evaluating the viscoelastic properties of the composite from the properties of structural components is shown.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. 3, pp. 295–306, May–June, 1998.     

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.     

Fractional Burgers models in creep and stress relaxation tests

Classical and thermodynamically consistent fractional Burgers models are examined in creep and stress relaxation tests. Using the Laplace transform method, the creep compliance and relaxation modulus are obtained in integral form, that yielded, when compared to the thermodynamical requirements, the narrower range of model parameters in which the creep compliance is a Bernstein function while the relaxation modulus is completely monotonic. Moreover, the relaxation modulus may even be oscillatory function with decreasing amplitude. The asymptotic analysis of the creep compliance and relaxation modulus is performed near the initial time-instant and for large time as well.     

Deformation and stress distribution in a layered plastic

The stress distribution over the unidirectionally reinforced layers is investigated in relation to the layer thickness ratio and the direction of loading of a two-way reinforced plastic. An expression is obtained for the modulus of elasticity of the layered plastic in an arbitrary direction relative to the directions of reinforcement. The effect of the geometry of the structure of the layered material on its deformation properties is experimentally illustrated.Institute of Polymer Mechanics, Academy of Sciences of the Latvian SSR, Riga. Translated from Mekhanika Polimerov, No. 3, pp. 563–570, May–June, 1972.     

Effects of temperature and moisture on the mechanical properties of polyester resin in tension

The effect of environment on the physical and mechanical properties of composite materials in some cases is determined by the environmental sensitivity of the binder. The results of experimental investigation of the deformability and strength of polyester resin, widely used as a binder in composites, upon the action of stationary and quasi-stationary loads, temperatures, and moisture are presented. The ranges of acceptable values of these services factors are determined. The elastic modulus and tensile strength of the material are obtained from quasi-static tests. The viscoelastic behavior of the resin is investigated in creep tests. From the results of a short-term experiment with stepwise loading up to failure, it is found that the creep of specimens with a moisture content of 0.14% can be described by a linear viscoelastic model for stresses up to 20 MPa (two thirds of the strength). The action of single loading impulses is summarized according to the Boltzmann superposition principle. The temperature and absorbed moisture are considered as factors accelerating the relaxation processes in the material. The creep activation under the action of these factors is described using the methods of time-temperature and time-moisture equivalence. The results of short-term creep tests allow us to determine the relaxation characteristics of the material in stationary conditions. The long-term creep under close-to-service conditions is predicted using these data and quite good agreement with the control test is obtained. The sensitivity of the material characteristics (strength, elastic modulus, and creep strain) to the action of temperature and moisture is estimated. The creep strain is most sensitive to the action of environmental factors. For a fully saturated material (moisture content 1.64 wt.%), after one hour creep, this strain four times exceeds that of a dry one. The same growth in deformability is caused by an 18°C increase in temperature. A quantitative comparison of the characteristics of polyester and epoxy resins allows us to choose the binder for composites and to estimate the expected environmental effect. Presented at the 11th International Conference on Mechanics of Composite Materials (Riga, June 11–15, 2000). Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 36, No. 3, pp. 395–406, May–June, 2000.     

Use of the results of auxiliary experiments in solving problems in the linear theory of viscoelasticity

The approximate method of solving problems of the theory of linear viscoelasticity with arbitrary creep and relaxation kernels, proposed in [2], is substantiated and generalized. The essence of this method consists in the approximation of the functions depending on the Laplace — Carson transforms of the mechanical characteristics of a viscoelastic body by means of certain combinations of the transforms of the creep and relaxation kernels. The expressions obtained as a result of the approximation enable the inverse transforms of the unknown functions to be found without difficulty.Moscow Lomonosov State University. Translated from Mekhanika Polimerov, Vol. 4, No. 6, pp. 963–969, November–December, 1968.     

Study of stress intensity factors near cracks in plates made of linearly viscoelastic fiber composites

For the first time a method is proposed for determining the stress intensity factors (SIF) near cracks in linear viscoelastic fiber composites using the data from polarization-optical measurements. The character of the change in the SIF in time near cracks in plates made of optically sensitive viscoelastic fiber composites exposed to constant tensile stresses (creep) was investigated. In describing the mechanical and optical properties of the materials, the composite was considered a homogeneous linearly viscoelastic orthotropic body. Equations were derived which correlate the fringe ordersm(t) with SIFK _j (j=1,2) and the longrange field stress _Ox in the vicinity of the apex of a crack whose direction coincides with the main direction of the axis of orthotropy. The SIF near linear cracks whose direction forms angles =90° and =45° with the direction of the tensile stresses were determined. It was found that the character of the change in SIF in time near cracks in creep, is a function of the angle between the direction of the crack and the direction of the tensile stress.Scientific-Research Institute of Mechanics, M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia. Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 321–328, May–June, 1997.     

Calculation of the moisture concentration field in a multilayered plate

Conclusion Thus, we have developed an algorithm and program to calculate fields of moisture concentration in a laminated plate for steady external temperatures and moisture contents. A test calculation and comparison of some of the findings with previous results demonstrated the accuracy of the program for solving a number of diffusion problems. For example, the program can be used to evaluate the life of the moisture-protective properties of polymer products, as well as to model moisture absorption in fiber composites.Curves of moisture concentration were calculated for a unidirectionally reinforced (with organic fibers) plastic at different relative humidities. We also calculated sorption curves and isotherms, which were shown to agree satisfactorily with previous empirical curves. It was shown that it is possible to approximately evaluate the sorption behavior of a unidirectionally reinforced fiber composite by means of a three-layer model and to analyze the stability of the result against an increase in the number of layers. For the two-component composite examined here, sorption behavior deviates from the classical behavior described by Fick's law — although the components of the composite obey this law.The algorithm and program that were developed make it possible to evaluate the kinetics of moisture absorption in complex composite systems and determine the distribution of moisture among and within the components.The study described here was conducted under grant 93.176 from the Latvian Science Council.Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 30, No. 4, pp. 502–511, July–August, 1994.