Synergistic Strengthening of Mechanical Properties and Electromagnetic Interference Shielding Performance of Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) Reinforced Magnesium Matrix Composites by CNTs Induced Laminated Structure

In this study, we reported a laminated CNTs/Mg composite fabricated by spray-deposition and subsequent hot-press sintering, which realized simultaneous enhancement effects on strength and electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding effectiveness (SE) by the introduced CNTs and CNT induced laminated ‘Mg-CNT-Mg’ structure. It was found that the CNTs/Mg composite with 0.5 wt.% CNTs not only exhibited excellent strength-toughness combination but also achieved a high EMI SE of 58 dB. The CNTs increased the strength of the composites mainly by the thermal expansion mismatch strengthening and blocking dislocation movements. As for toughness enhancement, CNTs induced laminated structure redistributes the local strain effectively and alleviates the strain localization during the deformation process. Moreover, it could also hinder the crack propagation and cause crack deflection, which resulted in an increment of the required energy for the failure of CNTs/Mg composites. Surprisingly, because of the laminated structure induced by introducing CNTs, the composite also exhibited an outperforming EMI SE in the X band (8.2–12.4 GHz). The strong interactions between the laminated ‘Mg-CNT-Mg’ structure and the incident electromagnetic waves are responsible for the increased absorption of the electromagnetic radiation. The lightweight CNTs/Mg composite with outstanding mechanical properties and simultaneously increased EMI performance could be employed as shell materials for electronic packaging components or electromagnetic absorbers.

A novel thermal-mechanical model and the characteristics of interfacial stress in the laminated structure for flexible electronics

Flexible electronics have attracted rapidly growing interest owing to their great potential utility in numerous fundamental and emerging fields. However, there are urgent issues that remain as pending challenges in the interfacial stress and resulting failures of flexible electronics, especially for heterogeneous laminates of hard films adhered to soft polymer substrates under thermal and mechanical loads. This study focuses on the interfacial stress of a representative laminated structure, that is, the Si film is adhesively bonded to soft polydimethylsiloxane with a plastic polyethylene terephthalate substrate. An novel thermal-mechanical coupling model for this flexible structure is established in this paper, which presents the essential characteristics of interfacial shear stress. In addition, under thermal and mechanical loads, a typical case is investigated by combining an analytical solution with numerical results using the differential quadrature method. Furthermore, thermal and mechanical loads, material and geometry parameters are quantitatively explored for their influences on the interfacial shear stress. Targeted strategies for decreasing stress are also suggested. In conclusion, the thermal-mechanical model and application case analyses contribute to enhancing the design of interfacial reliability for flexible laminated structures.

Distributed variable stiffness joint assist mechanism based on laminated structure

Exoskeleton technology is more and more widely used in military, human rehabilitation, and other fields, but exoskeleton assisting mechanisms have problems such as high quality, concentrated driving sources, and poor flexibility. This article proposes a distributed variable stiffness joint power-assisted mechanism based on a laminated structure, which uses a giant magnetostrictive material as the driving source and the variable stiffness source of the structure. The distributed driving is realized by multiple driving units connected in series and parallel. Firstly, the drive unit stiffness matrix is deduced, and the expression equations of the cascaded total stiffness matrix of the drive module are obtained. After the simulation study, the curve of the stiffness of a single drive unit with a magnetic field and the stiffness of multiple drive units connected in series and parallel are in the absence of the magnetic field. The change curve of the stiffness of the booster module with the number of drive units under the excitation and saturation magnetic field excitation conditions is to achieve the effect of dynamically controlling the structural stiffness of the drive unit by controlling the size of the magnetic field and to obtain a general formula through data fitting. The number of drive units required under a fixed magnetic field excitation can ensure that the error is within 5%. The research results lay the foundation for further analysis of the distributed variable stiffness joint assist technology.

Semianalytical Solution of Transient Heat Transfer for Laminated Structures under Time-Varying Boundary Conditions

In order to solve the transient heat transfer problem of the laminated structure, a semianalytical method based on calculus is adopted. First, the time domain is divided into tiny time segments; the analytical solution of transient heat transfer of laminated structures in the segments is derived by using the method of separation of variables. Then, the semianalytical solution of transient heat transfer in the whole time domain is obtained by circulation. The transient heat transfer of the three-layer structure is analyzed by the semianalytical solution. Three time-varying boundary conditions (a: square wave, b: triangular wave, and c: sinusoidal wave) are applied to the surface of the laminated structure. The influence of some key parameters on the temperature field of the laminated structure is analyzed. It is found that the surface temperature of the laminated structure increases fastest when heated by square wave, and the maximum temperature can reach at 377°C, the temperature rises the most slowly when heated by the triangular wave, and the maximum temperature is 347°C. The novelty of this work is that the analytical method is used to analyze the nonlinear heat transfer problem, which is different from the general numerical method, and this method can be applied to solve the heat transfer problem of general laminated structures.