The efect of filler-volume fraction on crack propagation behaviour of particulate composites

Composites ◽  
1981 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 295
Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (9) ◽  
pp. 2143
Author(s):  
Shaimaa I. Gad ◽  
Mohamed A. Attia ◽  
Mohamed A. Hassan ◽  
Ahmed G. El-Shafei

In this paper, an integrated numerical model is proposed to investigate the effects of particulate size and volume fraction on the deformation, damage, and failure behaviors of particulate-reinforced metal matrix composites (PRMMCs). In the framework of a random microstructure-based finite element modelling, the plastic deformation and ductile cracking of the matrix are, respectively, modelled using Johnson–Cook constitutive relation and Johnson–Cook ductile fracture model. The matrix-particle interface decohesion is simulated by employing the surface-based-cohesive zone method, while the particulate fracture is manipulated by the elastic–brittle cracking model, in which the damage evolution criterion depends on the fracture energy cracking criterion. A 2D nonlinear finite element model was developed using ABAQUS/Explicit commercial program for modelling and analyzing damage mechanisms of silicon carbide reinforced aluminum matrix composites. The predicted results have shown a good agreement with the experimental data in the forms of true stress–strain curves and failure shape. Unlike the existing models, the influence of the volume fraction and size of SiC particles on the deformation, damage mechanism, failure consequences, and stress–strain curve of A359/SiC particulate composites is investigated accounting for the different possible modes of failure simultaneously.


Membranes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 58
Author(s):  
Ali Zamani ◽  
F. Handan Tezel ◽  
Jules Thibault

Membrane-based processes are considered a promising separation method for many chemical and environmental applications such as pervaporation and gas separation. Numerous polymeric membranes have been used for these processes due to their good transport properties, ease of fabrication, and relatively low fabrication cost per unit membrane area. However, these types of membranes are suffering from the trade-off between permeability and selectivity. Mixed-matrix membranes, comprising a filler phase embedded into a polymer matrix, have emerged in an attempt to partly overcome some of the limitations of conventional polymer and inorganic membranes. Among them, membranes incorporating tubular fillers are new nanomaterials having the potential to transcend Robeson’s upper bound. Aligning nanotubes in the host polymer matrix in the permeation direction could lead to a significant improvement in membrane permeability. However, although much effort has been devoted to experimentally evaluating nanotube mixed-matrix membranes, their modelling is mostly based on early theories for mass transport in composite membranes. In this study, the effective permeability of mixed-matrix membranes with tubular fillers was estimated from the steady-state concentration profile within the membrane, calculated by solving the Fick diffusion equation numerically. Using this approach, the effects of various structural parameters, including the tubular filler volume fraction, orientation, length-to-diameter aspect ratio, and permeability ratio were assessed. Enhanced relative permeability was obtained with vertically aligned nanotubes. The relative permeability increased with the filler-polymer permeability ratio, filler volume fraction, and the length-to-diameter aspect ratio. For water-butanol separation, mixed-matrix membranes using polydimethylsiloxane with nanotubes did not lead to performance enhancement in terms of permeability and selectivity. The results were then compared with analytical prediction models such as the Maxwell, Hamilton-Crosser and Kang-Jones-Nair (KJN) models. Overall, this work presents a useful tool for understanding and designing mixed-matrix membranes with tubular fillers.


2014 ◽  
Vol 922 ◽  
pp. 568-573
Author(s):  
Victor Carretero Olalla ◽  
N. Sanchez Mouriño ◽  
Philippe Thibaux ◽  
Leo Kestens ◽  
Roumen H. Petrov

Control of ductile fracture propagation is one of the major concerns for pipeline industry, particularly with the increasing demand of new control rolled steel grades required to maintain integrity at high operational pressures. The objective of this research is to understand which microstructural features govern crack propagation, and to analyse the effect of two of them (average grain size, and volume fraction of pearlite). The main disadvantage during classical Charpy test was to discriminate the crack initiation and propagation energy during fracture of a notched sample. The initiation appears to be caused by the stress state in the neighbouring of Ti-containing precipitates or pearlite particles (no presence of M/A constituents or MnS inclusions was detected in the evaluated grades), propagation-arrest of the crack is assumed to play the main role concerning the control of fracture. Our approach to characterize the fracture resistance is to measure the energy absorbed during the crack propagation stage by means of load-displacement curves obtained via instrumented Charpy test. It was observed that the energy absorbed during crack propagation is not influenced by the average grain size but by the fraction and the morphological (banded-not banded) distribution of second pearlitic phase. This suggests that a different approach to characterize the heterogeneities in grain size clustering might be followed to correlate the energy measured during crack propagation and the morphological features of the steel.


Author(s):  
Bhaskar Ale ◽  
Carl-Ernst Rousseau

Hollow particulate composites are lightweight, have high compressive strength, are low moisture absorbent, have high damping materials, and are used extensively in aerospace, marine applications, and in the manufacture of sandwich composites core elements. The high performance of these materials is achieved by adding high strength hollow glass particulates (microballoons) to an epoxy matrix, forming epoxy-syntactic foams. The present study focuses on the effect of volume fraction and microballoon size on the ultrasonic and dynamic properties of Epoxy Syntactic Foams. Ultrasonic attenuation coefficient from an experiment is compared with a previously developed theoretical model for low volume fractions that takes into account attenuation loss due to scattering and absorption. The guidelines of ASTM Standard E 664-93 are used to compute the apparent attenuation. Quasi-static compressive tests were also conducted to fully characterize the material. Both quasi-static and dynamic properties, as well as coefficients of attenuation and ultrasonic velocities are found to be strongly dependent upon the volume fraction and size of the microballoons.


2016 ◽  
Vol 258 ◽  
pp. 178-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zdeněk Majer ◽  
Luboš Náhlík ◽  
Kateřina Štegnerová ◽  
Pavel Hutař ◽  
Raúl Bermejo

The aim of the present work is to analyze the influence of residual stresses in the particulate ceramic composite on the crack propagation. The crack propagation direction was estimated using Sih’s criterion based on the strain energy density factor. A two-dimensional finite element model was developed for determination of crack path. The residual stresses resulting from the mismatch of coefficients of thermal expansion during the fabrication process of the composite were implemented to the computational model. The effect of the particles shape on the crack propagation was investigated. Conclusions of this paper can contribute to a better understanding of the propagation of micro-cracks in particulate composites in the field of residual stresses.


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