Key Engineering Materials Vols. 297-300

Abstract: Through-thickness stitching is one of the most effective techniques to improve the delamination resistance of composite laminates. The effects of two different stitching patterns on the mode-I interlaminar fracture toughness of unidirectional carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) are examined experimentally in the present paper by using the double cantilever beam (DCB) test method. It is found that the zigzag stitching pattern results in a better toughening effect than the straight line pattern, and that the stitching density also has a considerable influence on the mode-I fracture toughness.

Abstract: Due to excellent high temperature resistivity on the strength, carbon fiber reinforced carbon matrix composites are thought to be one of attractive materials in a nuclear engineering field, e.g. the application to control rod sheath and so on in high temperature gas-cooled reactors as well as plasma facing components in fusion reactors. Prevention of the buckling fracture is placed as one of key subjects in the component design of C/C composites. The buckling fracture test was, therefore, carried out using 2-dimensional C/C composite (2D-C/C composite), and fracture surfaces were observed by SEM. From the buckling fracture test, it was found that there are three kinds of fracture modes; i.e. delamination fracture mode of fiber bundles at low aspect-ratio region, shear fracture mode of fiber bundles at middle aspect-ratio region and shear fracture mode of fiber bundles accompanying by fiber buckling at high aspect-ratio region.

Abstract: We investigated the particle size effects on the fracture toughness of epoxy resin composites reinforced with spherical-silica particles. The silica particles had different mean particle diameters of between 1.56 and 0.24µm and were filled with bisphenol A-type epoxy resin under different mixture ratios of small and large particles and a constant volume fraction for all particles of 0.30. As the content with the added smaller particle increased, the viscosity of each composite before curing remarkably increased. We conducted the single edge notched bending test (SENB) to measure the mode I fracture toughness of each composite. The fracture surface with the small particle content exhibited more rough areas than the surface with larger particles. The fracture toughness increased below the small particle content of 0.8 and saturated above it. Therefore, near the small particle content of 0.8, the composite had a relatively low viscosity and a high fracture toughness.

Abstract: Using natural fibers that are inexpensive, lightweight and biodegradable, as the reinforcement for composites is difficult due to their poor interfacial properties between hydrophilic fiber and hydrophobic polymer matrices. It is necessary to evaluate fracture toughness of natural fiber reinforced composites according to water absorption rates to improve mechanical performance of those. In this study, compact tension fracture test was conducted to evaluate fracture toughness with the various specimens. The value of fracture toughness has the tendency to decrease as water absorption rate increases. And different surface treatment methods and different polymer matrices have influence on the value of fracture toughness.

Abstract: The effect of interfiber distance on the interfacial properties in two dimensional multi-Eglass fiber/epoxy resin composites has been investigated using fragmentation test. In additions, the effect of the fiber surface treatment on the interfacial properties has been studied. We found that the interfacial shear strength decreased with the decreasing of the interfiber distance at the range of under 50µm and the extent of the decreasing was more serious as the increasing of the number of adjacent fiber. This is probably that the interface between the fiber and the resin was damaged by the adjacent fiber breaks and the damage increased with closing the interfiber spacing and the number of adjacent fiber. We can guess from this interfacial shear strength in real composites is much smaller than that of multi-fiber fragmentation sample with touched fiber. It was seen that the interfacial shear strengths saturated when the interfiber distance was over 50µm, the ones were saturated regardless of fiber surface treatment and the ones were in close agreement with those of the single fiber fragmentation test. Finally, the interfacial shear strength evaluated using two dimensional fragmentation tests are shown as real values in-site regardless of fiber surface treatment, interfiber distance and existing of matrix cracks.

Abstract: Viscoelastic materials are used in automobiles and other products. However, because of theoretical complexity, it has not been easy to put all the energy exhausted into the automotive viscoelastic materials. Since time is the most important factor in the study of viscoelastic material, creep and stress relaxation functions are very important. In this study, a bushing was selected for special viscoelastic material. A bushing is a device used in automotive suspension systems to cushion the force transmitted from the wheel to the frame of the vehicle. A bushing is essentially a hollow cylinder which is bonded to a solid metal shaft at its inner surface and a metal sleeve at its outer surface. The shaft is connected to the suspension and the sleeve is connected to the frame. The cylinder provides the cushion when it deforms due to relative motion between the shaft and sleeve. The relation between the force applied to the shaft or sleeve and their deformation is nonlinear and exhibits features of viscoelasticity. A force-displacement relation for a bushing is important for multi-body dynamics numerical simulations. Hence, an explicit force-displacement relation has been introduced. The relation is expressed in terms of a force relaxation function. With Pipkin-Rogers model, the direct relation of force and displacement that has been derived from experiment and numerical simulation, the sinusoidal displacement was chosen and the relation of frequency and deformation for the viscoelastic material was studied.

Abstract: The effect of the density of carbon/ carbon composites (C/C composites) and presandblasted treatment technology on the bond strength between hydroxyapatite (HA) coatings and C/C composites had been studied. The microstructure and fracture surfaces had been examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The shear strength of the HA coatings-C/C substrates was detected on a RGD-5 electric tension machine. Observations of fracture surfaces showed that carbon fiber bundles could bond well with HA coatings under the power of 40 kW. Results indicated that a HA coating onto C/C composite substrates was a new promising biomaterial for replacing loaded human bones.

Abstract: A free-standing photosensitive polyimide film with thickness of 10µm is fabricated with the different curing temperatures using a micro fabrication process. The microtensile specimens of a strip type are made to facilitate a tensile testing. The Young’s modulus and yield strength of photosensitive polyimide film are measured with various strain rates from 10-4 /s to 10-3 /s by using a microtensile test. Also, the hardness and Young’s modulus of polyimide films are obtained from nanoindentation test. Finally, the mechanical properties measured from microtensile test are compared with those from nanoindentation test.

Abstract: For the purpose of an application for a blood vessel holding actuator of thrombus detector, evaporation technique and film properties of TiNiCu ternary shape memory alloy (SMA) thin film was studied. The SMA thin film was formed on a sacrificial Cu substrate by using a flash evaporation technique, with which very small TiNiCu alloy pellets were evaporated repeatedly. With this evaporation technique, phase transformation temperature of the deposited thin film can be controlled by deposition timing after the each pellet starts to vaporize. When the interval time before the deposition was 0s, the deposited thin film became a super elastic alloy (SEA), which starts to deform below the human body temperature of 37°C. On the other hand, when the interval time was 1s or longer, the deposited thin film shows a shape recovery temperature of about 60°C. Fracture strength of the thin film was obtained at least 170MPa, that corresponds to a fracture force of 570mN for holding actuator of 0.6mm in width and 6µm in thickness. Although the SEA film was fragile, the SMA film at the interval time of 5s was flexible enough to be bendable to small radius of 0.15mm.