Environmental Efficiency Aspects of Basalt Fibers Reinforcement in Concrete Mixtures

Modern building materials must fulfill not only functional performance criteria but also reduce the environmental impact accompanied by their production. Within the past decades, fiber-reinforced materials have been found to be promising and durable materials that can be utilized in various fields. Among a wide range of reinforcement types, basalt fibers have been introduced as an alternative to broadly used steel fibers. As informed by the available literature, benefits linked with less energy-intensive production indicate a very good potential application of this material in terms of functional properties and, at the same time, a reduction in environmental burden. However, only a very limited amount of information is available on the actual impact of using basalt fibers in terms of environmental impact. In order to fill this gap, the present study describes, using Life Cycle Assessment, the environmental impacts associated with the production of basalt fibers. In order provide a more reliable and coherent overview, an analysis combining functional and environmental indicators was performed. The presented results reveal that the use of basalt reinforcement provides a significantly lower environmental intensity per strength unit, especially in the case of compressive and flexural strength.

On short glass fiber reinforced thermoplastics with high fiber orientation and the influence of surface roughness on mechanical parameters

Injection molding is a common process for manufacturing thermoplastic polymers. Preconnected to fabrication, mechanically loaded parts are examined in structural simulation. A crucial prerequisite for a valid structural simulation for any material is the underlying material data. To determine this data, different phenomena must be considered such as influences of load type, strain rate, environmental conditions and in case of fiber reinforced materials the fiber orientation (FO) in the considered area. Because of rheological effects, injection molded parts often possess a non-homogeneous FO distribution. This makes it challenging to create testing plates for specimen extraction with a well-defined FO over thickness and width in the considered area. In this paper, a novel testing part is introduced with an unidirectionally oriented testable area. It shows a FO degree of more than 0.75, which has been validated with μ-CT measurement and two thermoplastic materials: polyamide and polybutylene terephthalate, both reinforced with 30 weight percent of short glass fibers. In order to resolve influences of the already addressed FO distribution in injection molded parts, tensile test specimens need to be extracted out of specially designed plates via milling and cannot be injection molded directly. Experiments were carried out to study possible effects of preparation on the mechanical properties of specimens with both materials and two milling parameter sets. The first milling parameter set creates reproducible surface roughnesses, whereas the second parameter set shows a correlation between FO and roughness value: when milling perpendicularly to the main FO lower roughnesses are reached than milling in fiber direction. Uncertainties of the normalized rupture strain from orthogonally extracted specimens seem to be larger than the values from those extracted in fiber direction.

Analysis of Electromagnetic Reflection Loss for Mesh Structure with A16061 MMC for Aerospace Applications

One of the major problems facing by the aircraft was a lightning strike. To overcome this problem, fiber-reinforced materials have been used. The fiber-reinforced materials have less conductivity. These fiber-reinforced materials can’t eliminate the lightning strike effect. For that purpose, the metal matrix composite materials significantly impacted the aircraft’s internal circuits and physical components from the lightning strike effect. To meet industries dynamic and ever-increasing demands, Al6061 metal matrix composite reinforced with fly ash must be utilized to build the aircraft to offer HIRF. The material thickness should be kept low as possible then it can be used to cover the plane’s surface. To prevent lightning strikes, it might be used to protect electronic components from a concentrated high-intensity radiated field, primarily in Aeroplan configuration. The electromagnetic characteristics of composites are measured using the X-band for normal incidence. The electromagnetic reflection properties of AL6061 reinforced with fly ash are studied in this study for mesh structure. Mat lab Software was used to calculate the maximum reflection loss of 33.88dB for 15% fly ash and 85 percent AL6061 at X-band.

Life cycle assessment of bio-composite laminates. A comparative study

The use of glass fiber reinforced plastics is steadily increasing in the aerospace industry for aircraft interiors. However, the glass fiber reinforced plastics, although provide a robust solution they have many issues concerning their environmental friendliness. An alternative environmentally friendly solution for aircraft interiors is the use of bio-composites. Bio-composites used in this kind of applications are made of natural fibers as reinforcement and the use of bio-resins as matrix material. In the present study a life-cycle assessment approach is applied to selected bio-composites scenario and the comparison were made against the currently used glass fiber reinforced plastics. Results show the use of flax fiber reinforced materials seems to have lower environmental impact.

To Problem of Filler Failure in Processing of Fiber-Reinforced Materials

Filled polymers seem very promising materials for production. Polymers can be filled with a variety of diverse materials, be it polycaprolactam fiber, glass fiber, or steel wire. Compared to their non-filled counterparts, filled composites have a number of advantages. Production of filled polymers can be challenging due to the processing equipment (the rubber mixer, rollers, and extruders) mixing the fiber with the polymer matrix. In their purest form, polymers mostly don’t have the desired properties, which is why special additives (fillers, plasticizers, dyes, stabilizers, etc.) must be added to obtain the desired functional properties. This is why composites account for an ever greater share of polymers.

Damping Behavior of Thermoplastic Organic Sheets with Continuous Natural Fiber-Reinforcement

In the field of lightweight construction, the use of natural fibers as reinforcement in composites has been increasingly discussed. Additionally, the damping properties of natural fibers are known from fiber materials such as fiber insulation boards. In the scope of the work presented here, the focus is on identifying the potential of natural fibers for lightweight structures with high vibration damping capacity. For this purpose, test specimens made of flax fiber-reinforced and glass fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites were manufactured and characterized. Contrary to expectations, the flax fiber-reinforced composite exhibited an almost isotropic damping characteristic. A comparison of the damping and stiffness properties determined by measurement confirms the high potential of natural fiber-reinforced materials for lightweight structures with high damping.