Identification and Modeling of Variability in Fabrics Used as Reinforcement in Polymer Composites: Influence on Transport and Mechanical Properties

Author(s):  
Christophe Binetruy ◽  
Sébastien Comas-Cardona ◽  
Fan Zhang

Variability in fiber architecture and content introduces randomness in transport and mechanical properties of textile reinforcements and composites. Assessment of robustness of both manufacturing processes and composite parts require to link fabric variability to dominant properties. Irregular injection flow patterns or defects in the final products often occur due to the high variability in the fibrous media. Therefore, manufacturing robustness and part reliability have to be studied to avoid trial and error procedures. This study focuses on spatial variability in the fiber volume fraction and architecture and their influence on permeability of fiber reinforcements and mechanical performance of textile composite, relating these important properties to variation in reinforcement architecture. Methods to capture experimentally and model numerically the fabric randomness are presented and illustrated on typical non-woven fabrics. An efficient numerical approach is presented for the simulation of mold filling process with random fibrous permeability as input. Numerical examples for different injection schemes are presented to demonstrate the ability of the current approach in predicting the variability in mold filling results.

2021 ◽  
pp. 002199832110047
Author(s):  
Mahmoud Mohamed ◽  
Siddhartha Brahma ◽  
Haibin Ning ◽  
Selvum Pillay

Fiber prestressing during matrix curing can significantly improve the mechanical properties of fiber-reinforced polymer composites. One primary reason behind this improvement is the generated compressive residual stress within the cured matrix, which impedes cracks initiation and propagation. However, the prestressing force might diminish progressively with time due to the creep of the compressed matrix and the relaxation of the tensioned fiber. As a result, the initial compressive residual stress and the acquired improvement in mechanical properties are prone to decline over time. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the mechanical properties of the prestressed composites as time proceeds. This study monitors the change in the tensile and flexural properties of unidirectional prestressed glass fiber reinforced epoxy composites over a period of 12 months after manufacturing. The composites were prepared using three different fiber volume fractions 25%, 30%, and 40%. The results of mechanical testing showed that the prestressed composites acquired an initial increase up to 29% in the tensile properties and up to 32% in the flexural properties compared to the non-prestressed counterparts. Throughout the 12 months of study, the initial increase in both tensile and flexural strength showed a progressive reduction. The loss ratio of the initial increase was observed to be inversely proportional to the fiber volume fraction. For the prestressed composites fabricated with 25%, 30%, and 40% fiber volume fraction, the initial increase in tensile and flexural strength dropped by 29%, 25%, and 17%, respectively and by 34%, 26%, and 21%, respectively at the end of the study. Approximately 50% of the total loss took place over the first month after the manufacture, while after the sixth month, the reduction in mechanical properties became insignificant. Tensile modulus started to show a very slight reduction after the fourth/sixth month, while the flexural modulus reduction was observed from the beginning. Although the prestressed composites displayed time-dependent losses, their long-term mechanical properties still outperformed the non-prestressed counterparts.


2021 ◽  
pp. 096739112110239
Author(s):  
Sheedev Antony ◽  
Abel Cherouat ◽  
Guillaume Montay

Nowadays natural fibre composites have gained great significance as reinforcements in polymer matrix composites. Composite material based on a polymer matrix reinforced with natural fibres is extensively used in industry due to their biodegradability, recyclability, low density and high specific properties. A study has been carried out here to investigate the fibre volume fraction effect of hemp fibre woven fabrics/PolyPropylene (PP) composite laminates on the tensile properties and impact hammer impact test. Initially, composite sheets were fabricated by the thermal-compression process with desired number of fabric layers to obtain composite laminates with different fibre volume fraction. Uniaxial, shear and biaxial tensile tests were performed and mechanical properties were calculated. Impact hammer test was also carried out to estimate the frequency and damping parameters of stratified composite plates. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) analysis was performed to observe the matrix and fibre constituent defects. Hemp fabrics/PP composite laminates exhibits viscoelastic behaviour and as the fibre volume fraction increases, the viscoelastic behaviour decreases to elastic behaviour. Due to this, the tensile strength increases as the fibre content increases. On the other hand, the natural frequency increases and damping ratio decrease as the fibre volume fraction increases.


2021 ◽  
pp. 152808372110013
Author(s):  
Vivek R Jayan ◽  
Lekhani Tripathi ◽  
Promoda Kumar Behera ◽  
Michal Petru ◽  
BK Behera

The internal geometry of composite material is one of the most important factors that influence its performance and service life. A new approach is proposed for the prediction of internal geometry and tensile behavior of the 3 D (three dimensional) woven fabrics by creating the unit cell using mathematical coding. In many technical applications, textile materials are subjected to rates of loading or straining that may be much greater in magnitude than the regular household applications of these materials. The main aim of this study is to provide a generalized method for all the structures. By mathematical coding, unit cells of 3 D woven orthogonal, warp interlock and angle interlock structures have been created. The study then focuses on developing code to analyze the geometrical parameters of the fabric like fabric thickness, areal density, and fiber volume fraction. Then, the tensile behavior of the coded 3 D structures is studied in Ansys platform and the results are compared with experimental values for authentication of geometrical parameters as well as for tensile behavior. The results show that the mathematical coding approach is a more efficient modeling technique with an acceptable error percentage.


2017 ◽  
Vol 52 (11) ◽  
pp. 1443-1455
Author(s):  
Mike Mühlstädt ◽  
Wolfgang Seifert ◽  
Matthias ML Arras ◽  
Stefan Maenz ◽  
Klaus D Jandt ◽  
...  

Three-dimensional stiffness tensors of laminated woven fabrics used in high-performance composites need precise prediction. To enhance the accuracy in three-dimensional stiffness tensor prediction, the fabric’s architecture must be precisely modeled. We tested the hypotheses that: (i) an advanced geometrical model describes the meso-level structure of different fabrics with a precision higher than established models, (ii) the deviation between predicted and experimentally determined mean fiber-volume fraction ( cf) of laminates is below 5%. Laminates of different cf and fabrics were manufactured by resin transfer molding. The laminates’ meso-level structure was determined by analyzing scanning electron microscopy images. The prediction of the laminates’ cf was improved by up to 5.1 vol% ([Formula: see text]%) compared to established models. The effect of the advanced geometrical model on the prediction of the laminate’s in-plane stiffness was shown by applying a simple mechanical model. Applying an advanced geometrical model may lead to more accurate simulations of parts for example in automotive and aircraft.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
GEORGE BARLOW ◽  
MATHEW SCHEY ◽  
SCOTT STAPLETON

Modeling composites can be an effective way to understand how a part will perform without requiring the destruction of costly specimens. By combining artificial fiber entanglement with manufacturing process simulation, a method was developed to create fiber bundle models using entanglement to control the fiber volume fraction. This fiber entanglement generation uses three parameters, probability of swapping (p_(r_S )), swapping radius standard deviation (r_(σ_S )), and the swapping plane spacing (l_S), to control the amount of entanglement within the fiber bundle. A parametric study was conducted and found that the more entanglement within a fiber bundle, the more compression mold pressure required to compact the fiber bundle to the same fiber volume fraction as that required for a less entangled bundle. This artificial fiber entanglement and manufacturing process simulation method for creating fiber bundles shows the potential to be able to create bundles with controlled final volume fraction using a desired mold compression pressure.


2021 ◽  
Vol 879 ◽  
pp. 284-293
Author(s):  
Norliana Bakar ◽  
Siew Choo Chin

Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) made from synthetic fiber had been widely used for strengthening of reinforced concrete (RC) structures in the past decades. Due to its high cost, detrimental to the environment and human health, natural fiber composites becoming the current alternatives towards a green and environmental friendly material. This paper presents an investigation on the mechanical properties of bamboo fiber reinforced composite (BFRC) with different types of resins. The BFRC specimens were prepared by hand lay-up method using epoxy and vinyl-ester resins. Bamboo fiber volume fractions, 30%, 35%, 40%, 45% and 50% was experimentally investigated by conducting tensile and flexural test, respectively. Results showed that the tensile and flexural strength of bamboo fiber reinforced epoxy composite (BFREC) was 63.2% greater than the bamboo fiber reinforced vinyl-ester composite (BFRVC). It was found that 45% of bamboo fiber volume fraction on BFREC exhibited the highest tensile strength compared to other BFRECs. Meanwhile, 40% bamboo fiber volume fraction of BFRVC showed the highest tensile strength between bamboo fiber volume fractions for BFRC using vinyl-ester resin. Studies showed that epoxy-based BFRC exhibited excellent results compared to the vinyl-ester-based composite. Further studies are required on using BFRC epoxy-based composite in various structural applications and strengthening purposes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (7) ◽  
pp. 127-144
Author(s):  
Mays R. Abdulghani ◽  
Dr. Ahmed S. Ali

Normal concrete is weak against tensile strength, has low ductility, and also insignificant resistance to cracking. The addition of diverse types of fibers at specific proportions can enhance the mechanical properties as well as the durability of concrete. Discrete fiber commonly used, has many disadvantages such as balling the fiber, randomly distribution, and limitation of the Vf ratio used. Based on this vision, a new technic was discovered enhancing concrete by textile-fiber to avoid all the problems mentioned above. The main idea of this paper is the investigation of the mechanical properties of SCC, and SCM that cast with 3D AR-glass fabric having two different thicknesses (6, 10 mm), and different layers (1,2 layers). As well as micro-steel fiber with 1.25% volume fraction was used. Sixteen rectangular reinforced concrete beam specimens have been tested to study the behavior of their flexural strength. The results concluded that utilizing 3D-TFs with mortar mixture gave significantly higher enhancement for the load-carrying capacity than the concrete mixture. The utilization of 3D-TFs and micro-steel fiber together in the SCM mix gave better results. The stiffness of the specimens was improved with increasing the thickness and the number of textile fiber layers.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 1007-1019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Babar Ali ◽  
Liaqat Ali Qureshi ◽  
Ali Raza ◽  
Muhammad Asad Nawaz ◽  
Safi Ur Rehman ◽  
...  

Despite plain cement concrete presenting inferior performance in tension and adverse environmental impacts, it is the most widely used construction material in the world. Consumption of fibers and recycled coarse aggregates (RCA) can add ductility and sustainability to concrete. In this research, two mix series (100%NCA, and 100%RCA) were prepared using four different dosages of GF (0%GF, 0.25%GF, 0.5%GF, and 0.75%GF by volume fraction).  Mechanical properties namely compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, and flexural strength of each concrete mixture was evaluated at the age of 28 days. The results of testing indicated that the addition of GF was very useful in enhancing the split tensile and flexural strength of both RCA and NCA concrete. Compressive strength was not highly sensitive to the addition of GF. The loss in strength that occurred due to the incorporation of RCA was reduced to a large extent upon the inclusion of GF. GF caused significant improvements in the split tensile and flexural strength of RCA concrete. Optimum dosage of GF was determined to be 0.25% for NCA, and 0.5% for RCA concrete respectively, based on the results of combined mechanical performance (MP).


1994 ◽  
Vol 77 (7) ◽  
pp. 1897-1900 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hockin H. K. Xu ◽  
Claudia P. Ostertag ◽  
Linda M. Braun ◽  
Isabel K. Lloyd

2017 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 361-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gongdai Liu ◽  
R Ghosh ◽  
A Vaziri ◽  
A Hossieni ◽  
D Mousanezhad ◽  
...  

A typical plant leaf can be idealized as a composite having three principal fibers: the central mid-fiber corresponding to the mid-rib, straight parallel secondary fibers attached to the mid-fiber representing the secondary veins, and then another set of parallel fibers emanating from the secondary fibers mimicking the tertiary fibers embedded in a matrix material. This paper introduces a biomimetic composite design inspired by the morphology of venous leafs and investigates the effects of venation morphologies on the in-plane mechanical properties of the biomimetic composites using finite element method. The mechanical properties such as Young’s moduli, Poisson’s ratio, and yield stress under uniaxial loading of the resultant composite structures was studied and the effect of different fiber architectures on these properties was investigated. To this end, two broad types of architectures were used both having similar central main fiber but differing in either having only secondary fibers or additional tertiary fibers. The fiber and matrix volume fractions were kept constant and a comparative parametric study was carried out by varying the inclination of the secondary fibers. The results show that the elastic modulus of composite in the direction of main fiber increases linearly with increasing the angle of the secondary fibers. Furthermore, the elastic modulus is enhanced if the secondary fibers are closed, which mimics composites with closed cellular fibers. In contrast, the elastic modulus of composites normal to the main fiber ( x direction) exponentially decreases with the increase of the angle of the secondary fibers and it is little affected by having secondary fibers closed. Similar results were obtained for the yield stress of the composites. The results also indicate that Poisson’s ratio linearly increases with the secondary fiber angle. The results also show that for a constant fiber volume fraction, addition of various tertiary fibers may not significantly enhance the mechanical properties of the composites. The mechanical properties of the composites are mainly dominated by the secondary fibers. Finally, a simple model was proposed to predict these behaviors.


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