An experimental investigation of composite repair

This study investigates the repair of a glass/vinylester composite material with damage caused by impact loading and bending. The repair technique is based on the “standard procedures” established in a previous study. In addition to the damage due to bending, the repair of composite plates with straight cutting-line damage is also investigated due to its similarity to the bending fracture and good repeatability for evaluation. It is found that two glass reinforcing patches of plain weave—that is, (0, 90)₂—on each side of the specimen can restore the original load-bearing capability of the composite material of concern. The investigation of the cutting-line damage can also be viewed as a study of bond-line angles for composite joining. It is concluded that a bond-line angle greater than 60° can restore the undamaged composite strength. In maintaining a large bond-line angle as well as a large bonding surface, various bond-line configurations are presented. Results from the five joints of V, W, WW, U, and UU shapes further verify this conclusion.     

An experimental investigation of losipescu specimen for composite materials

A detailed experimental evaluation of the losipescu specimen tested in the modified Wyoming fixture is presented. Moiré interferometry is employed to determine the deformation of unidirectional and cross-ply graphite-epoxy specimens. The results of the moiré experiments are compared to those from the traditional strain-gage method. It is shown that the strain-gage readings from one surface of a specimen together with corresponding data from moiré interferometry on the opposite face documented an extreme sensitivity of some fiber orientations to twisting. A localized hybrid analysis is introduced to perform efficient reduction of moiré data, producing whole-field strain distributions in the specimen test sections.     

An experimental investigation on impact response of laminated composite beams

Experiments based on a new technique were carried out to study the response of glass/epoxy laminated composite beams subjected to impact loading. A number of glass/epoxy composite beams with different fiber orientations, spans, thicknesses, and support conditions were impacted with an instrumented impact hammer and the responses were picked up using an accelerometer in conjunction with a spectrum analyzer. Free vibration test for some sample beams were also carried out to determine their fundamental frequencies.     

Characterization of mode II fracture behavior in fiber-reinforced ceramic composite utilizing laser interferometry

A test technique to characterize the mode II fracture behavior in fiber-reinforced ceramic composites utilizing laser interferometry was developed. This was demonstrated by measuring the mode II critical strain energy release rate at room temperature. The present study used the siliconcarbide-fiber/glass-ceramic matrix composite system. Paper was presented at the 1991 SEM Spring Conference on Experimental Mechanics held in Milwaukee, WI on June 9–13.     

An analytical and experimental stress analysis of a practical mode II fracture test specimen

A boundary-collocation method has been employed to determine the Mode II stress-intensity factors for a pair of through-the-thickness edge cracks in a finite isotropic plate. An elastostatic analysis has been carried out in terms of the complete Williams stress function employing both even and old components. The results of the numerical analysis were verified by a two-step procedure whereby the symmetric (Mode I) and antisymmetric (Mode II) portions of the solution were independently compared with existing solutions. Since no previous analytical solutions existed for the asymmetric loading of an edge-cracked plate, the complete solution was verified by comparison with a photoelastic analysis. A compact shear (CS) specimen of Hysol epoxy resin was loaded in a photoelastic experiment designed to study the isochromatic-fringe patterns resulting from the Mode II crack-tip stress distribution. The experiment verified that a pure mode II stress distribution existed in the neighborhood of the crack tips, and confirmed the accuracy of the boundary-collocation solution for the Mode II stress-intensity factors. Specimen center-line stress-distribution data were obtained photoelastically and employed to refine the boundary-collocation analysis. Agreement between the analytically and experimentally determined Mode II stress-intensity factors was excellent.     

Elastic interaction of partially debonded circular inclusions. II. Application to fibrous composite

A complete analytical solution has been obtained of the elasticity problem for a plane containing periodically distributed, partially debonded circular inclusions, regarded as the representative unit cell model of fibrous composite with interface damage. The displacement solution is written in terms of periodic complex potentials and extends the approach recently developed by Kushch et al. (2010) to the cell type models. By analytical averaging the local strain and stress fields, the exact formulas for the effective transverse elastic moduli have been derived. A series of the test problems have been solved to check an accuracy and numerical efficiency of the method. An effect of interface crack density on the effective elastic moduli of periodic and random structure FRC with interface damage has been evaluated. The developed approach provides a detailed analysis of the progressive debonding phenomenon including the interface cracks cluster formation, overall stiffness reduction and damage-induced anisotropy of the effective elastic moduli of composite.     

Compression curve of a fibrous composite

Results are presented of an experimental investigation of a single-directional fibrous composite under compression in the bonding direction. The buckling modesare detected: the customary bending and a shear mode which holds for comparatively low sample flexibilities.Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Mekhaniki i Tekhnicheskoi Fiziki, No. 4, pp. 155–160, July–August, 1971.The authors are grateful to V. P. Gryaznov for assistance in preparing the samples.     

An experimental investigation of a wall jet in a torus

Results of an experimental investigation of the velocity profile of a turbulent gas injected in a toroidal configuration are presented. The measurements surprisingly show that it is possible to describe the radial distribution of the azimuthal velocity in terms of a plane wall jet discharging in an external stream. The growth of the inner boundary layer, the width of the jet, and the velocity profile are in accordance with the known experimental data on this subject. A fundamentally different relation has been deduced for the decay of the maximum velocity. Up to now Sigalla's formula \(U_m /U_j \propto \sqrt {a/x}\) is generally accepted. Our data based on an essentially extended range of x/a, correlate with the exponential relation $$U_m /U_j = exp\left[ { - 154(Re_x )^{ - 0.777} \frac{x}{a}} \right].$$      

Cutting process of composite materials: An experimental study

This paper focuses on experimental research of milling process of the epoxide-polymer matrix composite reinforced carbon fibers (EPMC—carbon composite). An influence of two control parameters, namely feed and rotational speed, on cutting forces is investigated. The experiment is conducted on a CNC machine with feed rate ranging from 200 to 720 mm/min and rotational speed from 2000 to 8000 rpm. The experimental time series are analysed by means of the delay coordinates method in order to find stable cutting regions and to recognize the kind of behaviour. Using this information, a new model for the cutting forces is proposed that can be used to build a new regenerative vibration model for EPMC milling.     

Anomalous behavior revisited: Dynamic response of elastic-plastic structures

Based on the minimum principle of acceleration in the elastic-plastic continua under finite deformation, the dynamic response of an elastic-perfectly plastic pin-ended beam subjected to rectangular impulse loading is studied with the help of a numerical approach. The calculated results once again show the anomalous behavior of the beam during its response process, which was previously found in [1]. By carefully analyzing the instantaneous distribution of the bending moment, the membrane force, the curvature and displacement during the response process, it is concluded that the interactive effect between the geometry and materials nonlinearities of the structure is the key reason for leading to the anomalous behavior. This will be helpful for clarifying some misunderstandings in explaining the problem before. Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.     

An experimental and analytical investigation of the rail shear-test method as applied to composite materials

This report presents the results from an experimental and analytical investigation of the stress distributions occurring in a rail shear test. The effects of nonuniform stresses induced by differential thermal expansion, rail flexibility and specimen aspect ratio on measured shear modulus and ultimate strength of composite laminates are shown. A two-dimensional linearly elastic finite-element model was used to analytically determine how various geometric parameters influenced the magnitude and distribution of inplane normal and shear stresses in a tensile-rail-shear specimen. Rail shear tests were conducted at room temperature and 589 K (600°F) on selected graphite-polyimide composite laminates using two titanium rail configurations. The analysis and test methods are discussed, and the results of the effects of the various parameters on shear modulus and ultimate strength are presented.     

Pure mode II fracture characterization of composite bonded joints

A new data reduction scheme is proposed for measuring the critical fracture energy of adhesive joints under pure mode II loading using the End Notched Flexure test. The method is based on the crack equivalent concept and does not require crack length monitoring during propagation, which is very difficult to perform accurately in these tests. The proposed methodology also accounts for the energy dissipated at the Fracture Process Zone which is not negligible when ductile adhesives are used. Experimental tests and numerical analyses using a trapezoidal cohesive mixed-mode damage model demonstrated the good performance of the new method, namely when compared to classical data reduction schemes. An inverse method was used to determine the cohesive properties, fitting the numerical and experimental load–displacement curves. Excellent agreement between the numerical and experimental R-curves was achieved demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Modeling the impact of a snow avalanche on a structure: An experimental investigation

The problem of the interaction of a high-density moving snow mass with various obstacles is examined.Translated from Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No.4, pp. 13–17, May–June, 1993.The authors are grateful to Ts. I. Stavskii, A. I. Denisov and the other participants in the experiments.     

An investigation of hydraulic fracturing. Part II: two-phase flow model

In the previous work presented in Part I (Theoret. Appl. Fracture Mech. 18, 89–102 (1993)), hydraulic fracture in an infinitely large saturated porous medium is analyzed under an assumption of one-phase flow in the medium. The investigation is extended in this paper to the case of a two phase saturated immiscible flow of oil and water in the porous medium. The medium is initially saturated with oil. Flow in the medium is induced by diffusion of water injected into the fracture. The quasi-static growth of the fracture for a prescribed injection rate is analyzed based on the assumptions that the pressure in the fracture is uniform and that the permeating flow in the medium is unidirectional. The constant fracture toughness criterion for plane strain deformation is employed and the effect of capillary pressure is neglected. Empirical formulas are used for the permeabilities of the oil and water phases. It is seen that the distributions of water saturation and pore pressure in the medium are governed by two nonlinear partial differential equations. Numerical solutions are obtained by a finite difference scheme with iterations. It is found that the injected water is restricted within a layer near the surface of the fracture whose thickness is small compared with the length of the fracture. Thus the flow in the medium is governed essentially by the oil phase. To compare our problem with the corresponding problem of one-phase flow, we find that the difference in crack growth in these two problems is small for the ration of kinematic viscosities of the oil and water phases within the practical range. Hence our study confirms the validity of the one phase flow assumption used in the previous work for prediction of hydraulic fracture growth.     

An experimental investigation of flow past a dual step cylinder

Flow development in the wake of a dual step cylinder has been investigated experimentally using Laser Doppler Velocimetry and flow visualization. The dual step cylinder model is comprised of a large diameter cylinder (D) mounted at the mid-span of a small diameter cylinder (d). The experiments have been performed for a Reynolds number (Re _D ) of 1,050, a diameter ratio (D/d) of 2, and a range of large cylinder aspect ratios (L/D). The results show that the flow development is highly dependent on L/D. The following four distinct flow regimes can be identified based on vortex dynamics in the wake of the large cylinder: (1) for L/D ≥ 15, three vortex shedding cells form in the wake of the large cylinder, one central cell bounded by two cells of lower frequency, (2) for 8 < L/D ≤ 14, a single vortex shedding cell forms in the wake of the large cylinder, (3) for 2 < L/D ≤ 6, vortex shedding from the large cylinder is highly three-dimensional. When spanwise vortices are shed, they deform substantially and attain a hairpin shape in the near wake, (4) for 0.2 ≤ L/D ≤ 1, the large cylinder induces vortex dislocations between small cylinder vortices. The results show that for Regimes I to III, on the average, the frequency of vortex shedding in the large cylinder wake decreases with L/D, which is accompanied by a decrease in coherence of the shed vortices. In Regime IV, small cylinder vortices connect across the large cylinder wake, but these connections are interrupted by vortex dislocations. With decreasing L/D, the frequency of dislocations decreases and the dominant frequency in the large cylinder wake increases toward the small cylinder shedding frequency.     

An experimental investigation of pulsatile flow through a smooth constriction

Measurements of flow disturbances in the downstream region of modeled stenoses in a rigid tube, with upstream pulsatile flow are reported. Experiments were conducted over physiologically relevant mean Reynolds numbers of 600; based on the tube diameter and the time-averaged value of upstream centerline velocity. Contoured constrictions with 25%, 50% and 75% area reductions were investigated and velocity data were obtained from ensemble averaging techniques (phase-locked waveform). Experimental data over extensive spatial regions of poststenotic fields were taken, employing a two-component laser Doppler velocimeter LDV. Constant time sampling techniques for performing data or frequency analyses were used to avoid velocity bias and to study the evolution of poststenotic flow disturbances. It is found that different types of flow disturbances exist downstream of the constriction. Data analysis methods with the aid of flow visualization allow accurate classification of the disturbances which are sensitive indicators of mild to moderate constrictions. Although the present study was motivated by a biological situation, sufficient data were reported in detail that they may also be used by investigators working in computational fluid dynamics.     

An experimental investigation of hypervelocity flow in a conical nozzle

The flow in a conical nozzle is examined experimentally for a range of hypervelocity conditions in a free-piston shock tunnel. The pitot pressure levels compare reasonably well with an inviscid numerical prediction which includes a correction for the growth of the nozzle wall boundary layer. The size of the nozzle wall boundary layer seems to be well predicted by semi-empirical expressions developed for perfect gas flows, as do data from other free-piston shock tunnels.