Influence of process conditions on hygroscopicity and mechanical properties of European beech thermally modified in a high-pressure reactor system

Holzforschung ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 70 (10) ◽  
pp. 971-979 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Altgen ◽  
Holger Militz

Abstract European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) was thermally modified in a closed reactor system under various process conditions. Sorption cycles, dynamic vapor sorption (DVS) measurements, and a three-point bending test were performed on thermally modified wood (TMW) to assess hygroscopicity and mechanical properties. As a function of mass loss (ML), the initial equilibrium moisture content (EMC) measured at 20°C/65% relative humidity (RH) directly after the process was strongly influenced by the RH during the process. This effect is explained by realignments of amorphous polymers in the cell wall ultra-structure in the course of thermal modification (TM). However, the EMC of TMW gradually increased after sorption cycles consisting of conditioning over liquid water and water-soaking. This increase was most distinct for TMW modified at low RH, which is an indication for reversible ultra-structural realignments. Results of the bending test suggest that structural realignments also hindered the plastic flow of amorphous cell wall polymers, thereby reducing inelastic toughness and inelastic deflection, while other bending properties were solely affected by ML alone. Process conditions in a closed reactor systems have a profound impact on resulting wood properties, and thus, the partial reversibility of these property changes need to be considered during the application.

2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuyang Song ◽  
Umesh Gandhi ◽  
Adam Koziel ◽  
Srikar Vallury ◽  
Anthony Yang

A glass-mat-reinforced thermoplastic (GMT) material is widely used in the automotive industry for components such as underbody shields, seat structures, front/rear bumper, and front-end modulus. Due to the higher residual length of the glass strands, GMT usually offers better mechanical properties than injection-molded fiber-reinforced thermoplastics. The GMT material is typically manufactured by compression molding (CM) of preimpregnated fibers–reinforced resin sheets called mat. Two types of mats, one with discontinuous random (RD) fibers and other with aligned continuous fibers, are considered in this study. A stack of such mats with different combinations is used to tailor the mechanical properties of the final part. During the CM, the fibers in the mat flow with the resin and change the alignment. In this study, we are presenting an approach to account for the initial condition, such as fiber length, orientation and concentration of the fibers in the mat, and process conditions used, to develop a material model for the finished part. First, a stack of mat with known fiber orientation, length, and concentration as initial conditions is simulated for CM to predict the fiber orientation in the finished part. Next, the material model for the finished parts is developed using a Mori–Tanaka homogenization approach. The fiber orientation in the finished part is mapped from the CM simulation. For the fiber concentration and fiber length distribution, we used an empirical approach. The cross section of the finished part is investigated under optical microscope, and the fiber length and concentration are estimated based on the microstructure and initial stacking of mats. The predicted fiber orientation tensor is verified with orientations measured using computerized tomography (CT) scan on actual parts. The material model is verified by comparing the predicted performance with the actual tensile and bending test results.


2011 ◽  
Vol 471-472 ◽  
pp. 652-657 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robiah Bt. Yunus ◽  
N.H. Zahari ◽  
M.A.M. Salleh ◽  
Nor Azowa Ibrahim

In this paper, the mechanical properties of carbon fiber polypropylene composites prepared under various process conditions were investigated. Two different types of polypropylene composites were produced by mixing and compressing the mixtures using hot press. The mixture was prepared by mixing polypropylene with chopped carbon fiber and carbon fiber percentage (wt%) was varied. Mechanical properties investigated were tensile test, impact test, bending test and density test. The Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) was employed to study the morphology of the composites. The highest tensile strength was obtained for polypropylene (MFI 60) composites reinforced with 10 wt% carbon fiber. The composite also exhibited the best tensile and flexural properties.


Author(s):  
Dhia Charni ◽  
Svetlana Ortmann-Ishkina ◽  
Marius Herrmann ◽  
Christian Schenck ◽  
Jérémy Epp

AbstractThe radial infeed rotary swaging is widely used as a diameter reduction forming process of axisymmetric workpieces, improving the mechanical properties with excellent near net shape forming. In the present study, rotary swaging experiments with different parameter setups were performed on steel tubes and bars under different material states and several resulting property modifications were investigated such as stress-strain curve, hardness, fatigue strength and surface residual stresses. The results show a significant work hardening induced by the rotary swaging process and an improvement in the static and dynamic mechanical properties was observed. Furthermore, the hardness distribution was homogenous in the cross section of the rotary swaged workpieces. Moreover, depending on the process conditions, different residual stresses distribution were generated along the surface.


2008 ◽  
Vol 591-593 ◽  
pp. 436-440
Author(s):  
João Marcos K. Assis ◽  
Francisco Piorino Neto ◽  
Francisco Cristóvão Lourenço de Melo ◽  
Maria do Carmo de Andrade Nono

A comparative study between alumina added niobia ceramics and two alumina zirconia composites from nanostructured TZP (7% and 14% weight) was made. On this composites the zirconia were yttria stabilized and the alumina were submicron structured. As sintering aid a mixture of magnesia, niobia and talc were used on all samples. The sintering was performed at 1450 oC during 60 minutes. The characteristic grain size and shape of an alumina and zirconia powders, aggregates and agglomerates were characterized. The sintering ceramics were evaluated through hardness, fracture toughness and 4 point bending test. Weibull statistic was applied on the flexural results. Although the fracture toughness result from ZTA were lower, and seems to be affected by the liquid fase, the hardness and Weibull modulus were higher than alumina niobia. The grains size and the homogeneity of its distributions on the microstructure of this ceramics was correlated to these higher values. The results from these alumina zirconia composites showed a potential to apply as a ballistic armor material.


2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 276-286
Author(s):  
Z. Dekel ◽  
S. Kenig

Abstract The mechanical, electrical, thermal, and rheological properties of micro injection molded nanocomposites comprising 2% and 5% carbon nanotubes (CNTs) incorporated in polycarbonate (PC), and polyamide 66 (PA) were studied. The design of experiments method was used to investigate the composition-process – properties relationship. Results indicated that the process variables significantly affected the flow patterns and resulting morphology during the filling stage of the microinjection molding (lIM) process, using 0.45 mm diameter lIM samples. Two distinct flow regimes have been identified in lIM using the low cross-section samples. The first was a conventional “fountain flow,” which resulted in a skin/core structure and reduced volume resistivity up to 10 X cm in the case of 5% CNTs and up to 100 X cm in 2% CNTs, in both polymers, respectively. In addition, inferior mechanical properties were obtained, attributed to polymer degradation under high shear rate conditions, when practicing high injection speeds, high mold temperatures, and high screw rotation velocities. The second was a “plug flow” due to wall slippage, obtained under low injection speeds, low mold temperatures, and low rotation velocities, leading to a substantial increase in modulus of elasticity (60%) with increased electrical resistivity up to 103 X cm for 5% CNTs and 105 X cm for 2% CNTs, respectively. The rheological percolation threshold was obtained at 2% CNTs while the electrical threshold was attained at 0.4% CNTs, in both polymers. It was concluded that in lIM, the process conditions should be closely monitored. In the case of high viscous heating, degradation of mechanical properties was obtained, while skin- core morphology formation enhanced electrical conductivity.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 5494
Author(s):  
Lucie Kucíková ◽  
Michal Šejnoha ◽  
Tomáš Janda ◽  
Jan Sýkora ◽  
Pavel Padevět ◽  
...  

Heating wood to high temperature changes either temporarily or permanently its physical properties. This issue is addressed in the present contribution by examining the effect of high temperature on residual mechanical properties of spruce wood, grounding on the results of full-scale fire tests performed on GLT beams. Given these tests, a computational model was developed to provide through-thickness temperature profiles allowing for the estimation of a charring depth on the one hand and on the other hand assigning a particular temperature to each specimen used subsequently in small-scale tensile tests. The measured Young’s moduli and tensile strengths were accompanied by the results from three-point bending test carried out on two groups of beams exposed to fire of a variable duration and differing in the width of the cross-section, b=100 mm (Group 1) and b=160 mm (Group 2). As expected, increasing the fire duration and reducing the initial beam cross-section reduces the residual bending strength. A negative impact of high temperature on residual strength has also been observed from simple tensile tests, although limited to a very narrow layer adjacent to the charring front not even exceeding a typically adopted value of the zero-strength layer d0=7 mm. On the contrary, the impact on stiffness is relatively mild supporting the thermal recovery property of wood.


2013 ◽  
Vol 486 ◽  
pp. 283-288
Author(s):  
Ladislav Fojtl ◽  
Soňa Rusnáková ◽  
Milan Žaludek

This research paper deals with an investigation of the influence of honeycomb core compression on the mechanical properties of sandwich structures. These structures consist of prepreg facing layers and two different material types of honeycomb and are produced by modified compression molding called Crush-Core technology. Produced structures are mechanically tested in three-point bending test and subjected to low-velocity impact and Charpy impact test.


2010 ◽  
Vol 177 ◽  
pp. 447-450 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xin Zhang ◽  
Yi Wen Hu ◽  
Yin Wu ◽  
Wen Jie Si

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the crystal phase formation behavior and its influence on the mechanical properties of LiO2-SiO2-P2O5 glass-ceramics system. High temperature XRD was used to analyze the crystal phase formation in situ. The crystalline phases in the material both before and after heat-treatment were also analyzed. The flexural strength was measured by three-point bending test according to ISO 6872:2008(E). The SEM analysis showed that the high strength of the glass-ceramics is attributed to the continuous interlocking microstructure with fine lithium disilicate crystallines.


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