Designing Composites for Graceful Failure

When inevitable, failure in composite laminates is preferred to occur gracefully to avoid loss of property and possibly life. While the inherent inhomogeneity leads to slow dissipation of damage-related energy, overall failure is fiber-dominated and occurs in a rather brittle manner. Multidirectional plies usually give a more ductile response. Additionally, stiffness and strength as well as cost are important factors to consider in designing composite laminates. It is hence desirable to optimize for high mechanical properties and low cost while keeping graceful failure. Designing composite laminates with hybrid systems and layups, which permit gradual damage energy dissipation, are two ways proposed in this work to optimize for mechanical properties while avoiding catastrophic failure. In the hybrid system design, combining the less expensive glass reinforced plies with carbon reinforced plies offers a cost-effective product, marginal mechanical properties change and ductile profile upon failure. Hybrid glass/carbon composite laminates subjected to three-point bending showed strain to failure which is double that measured for carbon composite specimens, without affecting the ultimate load. Energy dissipation mechanisms were also created by building laminates which were intentionally made discontinuous by introducing cuts in the fibers of the interior plies. This created a longer path for damage before cutting through the next ply resulting in double failure strain with marginal reduction in load. The effect of fiber discontinuity in terms of spacing and distribution are among the factors considered.

Evaluation of Fatigue Crack Growth Characteristics on Stainless Steel SS 316 LN Using Acoustic Emission Technique

Results of online acoustic emission (AE) monitoring during fatigue crack growth rate (FCGR) experiments on a stainless steel SS 316 LN are presented in this paper. Two specimen geometries — viz., standard compact tension (C(T)) specimens as well as side-grooved C(T) specimens were considered for experiments at ambient temperature and at 600°C (873K). There is a good correspondence between crack length increment and the increase in AE cumulative count and cumulative energy during the experiments. The side grove introduced on the thickness direction of the test specimen constrains the plastic zone ahead of the crack tip, thereby enforcing plane strain conditions at the crack. Reduced AE activity at initial stages of crack growth was observed for side grooved samples. The transition to Stage-II crack growth was observed using acoustic emission (AE) technique which otherwise was not visible from the fatigue crack growth plot. The work further attempts to correlate the AE parameters obtained during elevated temperature (873K) fatigue crack growth in stainless steel. For the purpose of acquiring AE signals outside the heated zone, a waveguide was used to transmit the acoustic waves from the specimen at high temperature. A correlation between crack advance and AE parameters was obtained from the elevated temperature tests.

Stiffness Degradation of Digital Polypropylene Under Fatigue Loading: Investigations via 3-Dimensional Polyjet Printed Coupons

The utilization of additively manufactured parts is gaining popularity in functional applications. Polymer-based additive manufacturing (AM) parts are utilized in a variety of engineering applications for automotive, aerospace, and energy. AM printed parts are however newer class of materials, and structural performance of these materials is not fully understood completely, and very limited exists currently on precisely performance of Polyjet printed parts and associated digital materials under fatigue loading. This paper investigates the stiffness degradation under tension-tension fatigue loading of digital polypropylene using homogenous 3-Dimensional test coupons formed using PolyJet printing. Homogeneous 3-Dimensional test configuration employed in the present study eliminates the process-induced limitations of traditional ASTM D638 2D fatigue test coupons for AM processed materials. Fatigue data is analyzed to present an empirical model of effective elastic modulus and an analytical model of the accumulated damage state, as defined on the basis of stiffness degradation during cyclic loading. Further, the actual damage accumulation due to cyclic loading with the predicted model is compared. Modeling of the S-N diagram provides a better estimation of fatigue life and fatigue life modeling of AM printed test coupons and is obtained via linear regression analysis of experimental data with high correlation coefficient R2 (0.9971). The analytical model of the accumulated damage state is based on the stiffness degradation and is derived from the regression analysis of experimental data of stiffness degradation at different loading percentages assuming a polynomial of degree 4. Present study provides insight into the fatigue damage state and cyclic performance of digital polypropylene from Polyjet printing.

Investigation and Characterization of Clay Mixture Feedstock for Extrusion-Based Additive Manufacturing

The extrusion-based AM technique has been recently employed for rapid ceramic components fabrication due to scalability and cost-efficiency. This paper investigated aspects of the extrusion technique to print ceramic materials. Specifically, we assessed and developed a process recipe of the formulations (the composition of water and ethanol-based clay mixtures) and mixing processes. Different clay paste formulations were prepared by varying clay, water, ethanol ratios. The viscosity of clay paste was measured using a DV3T Viscometer. Afterward, the produced clay paste was used as a feedstock for WASP Delta 60100 3D printer for computer-controlled extrusion deposition. We evaluated the quality of the clay paste based on (i) pumpability, (ii) printability, and (iii) buildability. Pressure and flow rate were monitored to assess the pumpability. The nozzle was monitored for continuous material extrusion to assess printability. The maximum layer-without-collapse height was monitored to assess the buildability. This study correlated the mixture composition and process parameters, to the viscosity of the mixture, at the same printing speed. We found that 85 wt% clay, 5 wt% water, 10 wt% ethanol paste formulation, with the viscosity of 828000 cP, 202400 cP, 40400 cP at 1, 5, and 50 rpm, respectively, demonstrates good pumpability, as well as best printability and buildability.

Elastic-Viscoplastic Mechanics of Lithium in a Standard Dry Room

In electrochemical-mechanical modeling of solid-state batteries, there is a lack of understanding of the mechanical parameters and mode of deformation of lithium metal. Understanding these characteristics is crucial for predicting the propagation of lithium dendrites through the electrolyte — a key element of battery safety. Past theories have assumed linear elastic as well as elastic-plastic deformation of lithium. However, recent experiments show that the primary mode of deformation is creep. This study replicates the temperature dependent mechanical experiments but inside an industrial dry room, where battery cells are manufactured at high volume. Furthermore, this work conducts time dependent studies — also inside the dry room — to gain insight of the large deformation theories of lithium metal. The results confirm the activation energy, which dictates the creep mechanism, is correlated to core diffusion rather than lattice diffusion.

Finite Element Study of the Effect of Load Sequence on the Fretting Wear

Understanding the effect of load sequence is important in the context of a blade-disc dovetail joint in an aero-engine and many other such applications where, the mating surfaces undergo fretting wear under variable slip amplitude loading conditions. In the present work, a two-dimensional finite element analysis is carried out for a cylinder-on-plate configuration. The cylinder is modeled as deformable whereas the plate is modelled as rigid. An incremental wear modelling algorithm is used to model the wear of cylindrical pad while the plate is assumed as un-worn. This simulates a practical scenario where, generally one of the mating surfaces is sufficiently hardened or an interfacial harder/sacrificial element is inserted to restrict the wear to only one of the surfaces. A Fortran-based ABAQUS® subroutine UMESHMOTION is used to simulate the wear profile for the cylinder. A constant extrapolation technique is used to simulate 18000 cycles of fretting. The finite element analysis results are validated with the analytical solutions and literature data. The fretting wear modelling is carried out for two different slip amplitudes viz., 25 μm and 150 μm, to simulate the low and high slip amplitude loading respectively. Two blocks of alternate low and high slip amplitudes are applied to understand the influence of load sequence. Important contact parameters viz., contact pressure, contact stresses and contact slip are extracted. A comparison is made between the low-high and high-low load sequence based on the contact tractions and worn out profiles.

Blue Shift in Ultraviolet Absorption Spectra of Oxygen Doped Titanium Nitride Thin Films

The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of film thickness on the bandgap of oxygen (O2)-doped titanium nitride (TiN) thin films. To accomplish this, high-quality two-dimensional O2-doped TiN films have been prepared on single-crystal sapphire substrates using a pulsed laser deposition method. The film thicknesses were varied from 3 to 100 nm by varying the number of laser pulses, while other deposition parameters are kept constant. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns have shown that the films grow in (111) orientation on the sapphire substrate. The increase in the intensity of the XRD (111) peak also demonstrates a better orientational alignment of the TiN films with substrate as the film thickness increases. The x-ray rocking curve has been used to measure the full width half maxima (FWHM) for each film. The FWHM values has been found to vary from 0.07 to 0.2° as the film thickness decreases. This is taken to indicate that the grain size decreases with a decrease in film thickness. Ultraviolet visible spectroscopy measurements in the wavelength range (200–800 nm) have been performed as well, which indicates an increase in the bandgap of O2-doped TiN films with a decrease in film thickness. The decrease in the film thickness leads to a blue shift of the peak in the ultraviolet-visible absorption (UV-A) region; this blueshift is accompanied by an increase in the bandgap of O2-doped TiN from 3.2 to 3.8 eV. The change in the bandgap due to a change in film thickness has been explained using the quantum confinement effect.

Additive Manufacturing With Ceramics

The purpose of this project is to design a device that improves the performance of a ceramic additive manufacturing (AM) 3D printer constructed by Army Research Labs (ARL). ARL modified a standard LulzBot Taz 6 3D printer to print a ceramic slurry mixture of Boron Carbide (B4C) and Silicon Carbide (SiC) instead of plastic filament. Since these compounds are often used in body armor, ARL has been observing the effects on properties when these components are 3D printed. The current printer utilizes an auger in the print head to receive and mix the B4C and SiC slurries and extrude the combined slurry out of the print nozzle. The current design is limited in its ability to thoroughly mix the slurries during the printing process. Therefore, team Concept Creators has designed an improved auger that will increase the mixedness of the slurries, thus increasing the print quality of the composite specimen.

Effect of Friction on Residual Stress Distribution Induced by Split Sleeve Cold Expansion Process

Residual Stress distribution and parametric influence of friction are studied for the split sleeve cold expanded holes in Al 2024 T351 alloy, by developing a three-dimensional finite element model of the process. Fastener holes in the alloy are necessary for the manufacturing process, but they create a potential area for stress concentration, which eventually leads to fatigue under cyclic loading. Beneficial compressive residual stress distribution as a result of the split sleeve cold expansion process provides retardation against crack initiation and propagation at the critical zones near hole edges. In this parametric study, the influence of friction between contact surfaces of the split sleeve and mandrel is numerically investigated. Hole reaming process after split sleeve cold expansion is often not discussed. Without this post-processing procedure, split sleeve cold expansion is incomplete in practice, and its purpose of providing better fatigue performance is invalidated. This study presents results and an overview of the significance of friction with the consideration of the postprocessing of split sleeve cold expansion. The numerical results show that with increasing friction coefficient, compressive residual stress reduces significantly at the mandrel entry side, which makes the hole edge more vulnerable to fatigue. The different aspects of finite element modeling approaches are also discussed to present the accuracy of the prediction. Experimental residual stress observation or visual validation is expensive and time-consuming. So better numerical prediction with the transparency of the analysis design can provide critical information on the process.

Numerical Simulation of Ampacity in Advanced Electrical Conductors

Elevated temperature performance of advanced conductors are investigated with a one-dimensional joule heating model. Step-by-step development and validation of the ampacity prediction model are discussed and results from case studies are provided. A potential advantage of advanced electrical conductors is their relatively low density. Copper — as reference — is compared with carbon-based conductors and copper nanocomposites, on the basis of equivalent volume and equivalent weight. It is shown that while doped carbon nanotube (CNT) conductors may potentially result in an improved conductor compared with copper on a weight basis, ultra-conductive copper (UCC) can outperform copper on both volume and weight bases.