Key Engineering Materials Vol. 809

Abstract: Within the research project a variable gridshell in lightweight design was developed that permit the building of free-formed mobile architectures. The construction consists of a large number of straight length-adjustable bars pin-jointed via so-called knots and enables extremely efficient and stable support structures with high potential for lightweight construction.

Abstract: The increasing market share of highly volatile electricity generated from renewable sources like wind or solar energy, leads to enormous challenges in the energy sector. Since large-scale storage systems are neither currently nor in the near future available, the gap between electricity from renewable sources and current electricity demand has to be closed with flexibly operated conventional power plants. In order to be a viable, cost-effective option in tomorrow’s energy market future power plants must be highly efficient while having low CO₂ emissions. Furthermore, they have to be highly reactive to counter instabilities in the electrical grid due to fluctuations in renewable sources. Current materials used in power plants are only within limits suited to experience extreme changes in operational loads. However, extreme changes of operational loads will become increasingly severe with a growing share of renewables. Our project team has developed a new concept for CMC-jacketed pipes to alleviate these issues. Recently, this concept was further developed and tested in laboratory as well as a large-scale application test at Grosskraftwerk Mannheim (GKM). All tests are still ongoing. Additionally, to the use in modern highly efficient power plants such CMC-jacketed piping is also suitable for other high-temperature applications, like e.g. solar power plants or industrial chemical applications.

Abstract: This paper deals with the experimental characterization of the fiber angles of multiple curved laminate segments using prepreg-based carbon fiber reinforced polymers as a structure for a non-engaging bellows coupling. The main task of this generic shaft coupling is the torsionally stiff torque transmission and the compensation of axial displacement as well as the angular misalignment of metallic shafts. The multiple curved structure can be manually draped by several cut segments using epoxy-based fabric prepreg. Moreover, the intended initial fiber orientation of the laminate is ±45° with respect to the rotation axis of the structure. For the experimental determination of the local fiber angles various CFRP cut segments were defined as CFRP specimens with varying number of layers and constant width. All investigations were based on cured CFRP specimens. The measurements were performed with a robot-assisted optical surface sensor and an optical digital microscope. The influence of the manual draping process according to the z-method could be quantitatively determined by the fiber angle measurements.

Abstract: Combination of material testing methods such as X-ray computed tomography with in-situ load stages allows for detailed analysis of damage formation and progression in fibre-reinforced composites. X-ray computed tomography is highly suited to volumetrically analyse the damage evolution induced by the load stage for tensile testing after subsequent load increments. Simultaneous acoustic emission monitoring allows identifying the occurrence of particular failure mechanisms and allows stopping the loading procedure for volumetric scanning. However, typical commercial designs focus on a broad range of materials and are not necessarily optimized for high load capacity at high voxel resolution or the possibility to attach acoustic emission sensors to the test sample. Accordingly, we designed a new load stage to fit larger samples up to 180 mm in length and 18 mm in width, which also allows two piezoelectric acoustic emission sensors to be directly applied on the sample. In order to test fibre reinforced laminate samples with a relevant cross-section, the support structure of the load stage is made of a carbon fibre reinforced polymer tube, which withstands a maximum load of 25 kN and still stays reasonably X-ray transparent. With an outer diameter of 27 mm, a computed tomography scan with a resolution down to 2.6 μm is still possible for these laminate cross-sections. This allows to study in detail how matrix and fibres behave under loads in laminates, which are comparable to specimen sizes by typical test standards. As example, we present results from glass fibre-reinforced epoxy samples with a [±45°]₅ layup and carbon fibre-reinforced epoxy samples with a [0,90,90,0] layup.

Abstract: Cost-optimized materials and processes are the key to high-performance components at attractive production costs. This study shows that non crimp fabrics (NCF) used as inner layers of high performance Class-A cfrp parts can lead to unwanted print-through effects on Class-A composite surfaces, even though they are not the surface layer. This surface distortion that is expressed in scattered lines in the direction of inner NCF layers can lead to high reject rates and is normally first noticed in the painted state. The presented methodology is able to quantify this secondary print-through effect for cured composites as well as for the dry textile intermediates. The surface can be measured with conventional measuring techniques, such as laser triangulation or interferometers, and characterized with the standardized values Sz and Sz25. The results show that the visible and measurable more uneven surface of a 50k biaxial NCF leads to significantly higher Sz and Sz25 values in the dry textile and the cured component. Also the regularity of the measured textiles can be detected by determining the variation of different areas of a 800 by 800mm sized sample. The presented methodology has the potential to optimize the incoming goods inspection of high volume Class-A composite manufacturers, as well as the requirement-orientated and cost-efficient development of textile intermediates by suppliers.

Abstract: Digital Image Correlation (DIC) has become more and more important in the field of material characterization and research, especially for strongly anisotropic fiber reinforced materials. Its big advantage over the conventional methods like strain gauges or point based video-extensometers is the full field strain and displacement measurement and the ability to analyze three-dimensional displacements. Although theoretically, the concept of the DIC as a pure image-based method allows it to work on every imaginable scale, its main field of application is in the range, where the region of interest (ROI) has a size between 10 −2 m to 10 −1 m. In this case, imaging is accomplished with the use of high-resolution black and white digital cameras. This work is focused on a smaller scale with ROI sizes between 10 −4 m to 10 −3 m, where a digital microscope is used to create the images. The innovative idea behind this work is using the natural surface structure of a polished carbon fiber reinforced Polyamide-6 sample, produced by automated fiber placement, as a statistical pattern instead of the usual speckle pattern applied to the area to be investigated. This way the stress and strain distributionin different regions of the investigated sample area can be evaluated and displayed, while the sample is exposed to an increasing mechanical load in form of a three-point bending test. The resulting strain and displacement fields are compared to finite element modeling of the ROI. To provide an accurate model, the image of the sample is first segmented into fiber, matrix and voids using “Trainable Weka Segmentation” and the resulting phases mapped with the corresponding material properties. To compute the resulting strains in the sample, the measured displacements from the DIC on the edges of the ROI were used as boundary conditions for the simulation. Simulation and experimental results clearly point out the inhomogeneity of the strain field in these samples. Due to the presence of fiber rovings and the presence of voids, local strain values exceed the global average by up to 4 %.

Abstract: In order to determine the material properties of anisotropic continuous fiber-reinforced polymers, such as stiffness and strength, quasi-static tensile tests are carried out, in which the test specimen is subjected to a controlled load until failure. In opposite to ductile metals, exact localization of the failure on the test specimen or observation of the initial or final failure in time is not possible because of the brittle failure mechanism. The sample often breaks down into many small fragments. In order to get a deeper understanding of the failure behavior and to optimize the material and the design of the specimen, a characterization of the damage progress under load by passive thermography was implemented. This is a suitable method for the detection of near-surface defects and provides very promising results, especially in combination with sophisticated evaluation methods of active thermography. An important influencing factor is the analysis of the amount of energy released during a micro-damaging event. In this paper, we show an approach to increase the contrast of single damaging events and a possibility to visualize the damaging progress, especially for near-surface defects. The measurements were realized with continuously fiber-reinforced materials.

Abstract: To detect and characterize materials defects in fiber composites as well as for evaluatingthe three-dimensional local fiber orientation in the latter, X-ray micro-CT is the preferred methodof choice. When micro computed tomography is applied to inspect large components, the method isreferred to as region-of-interest computed tomography. Parts can be as large as 10 cm wide and 1 mlong, while the measurement volume of micro computed tomography is a cylinder of only 4 − 5 mmdiameter (typical wall thickness of fiber composite parts). In this report, the potentials and limits ofregion-of-interest computed tomography are discussed with regard to spatial resolution and precisionwhen evaluating defects and local fiber orientation in squeeze cast components. The micro computedtomography scanner metRIC at Fraunhofer‘s Development Center X-ray Technology EZRT deliversregion-of-interest computed tomography up to a spatial resolution of 2 μm/voxel, which is sufficientfor determining the orientation of natural or synthetic fibers, wood, carbon and glass. The mean localfiber orientation is estimated on an isotropic structuring element of approximately 0.1 mm length bymeans of volume image analysis (MAVI software package by Fraunhofer ITWM). Knowing the exactlocal fiber orientation is critical for estimating anisotropic thermal conductivity and materials strength.

Abstract: When testing unidirectional reinforced composites with a fiber orientation of 90° in tensile tests with rectangular specimens, the influence of the clamping often causes a failure in their vicinity and therefore the test cannot be regarded as valid. In this paper, a test specimen design was determined which is well suited for testing the material properties transverse to the fiber direction by calculating the influence of geometric details of shoulder bar specimens with the help of finite element simulation. The particularly critical clamping and shoulder areas were examined more closely to ensure failure mainly in the test field. In the clamping area the design of the glued-on tabs was investigated and in the shoulder area an optimization of the shoulder geometry was done. Based on the two optimized design proposals, test specimens were produced and evaluated by monotonous tensile tests. Subsequently, Wöhler tests were carried out at different R-ratios and load levels and compared with results of rectangular specimens.

Abstract: Model-based quality control has the potential to reduce the reject rate in the production of fiber-reinforced plastics (FRP) components. After all the cross-market establishment of FRP, undesirable quality deviations often occur with new materials or component shapes. The quality control uses the component quality (e.g. component angle, crystallinity, fiber orientation, pore content) as the control variable. As a key component of the control, a process model is developed to link the process parameters (press pressure, press duration and tool temperature) with the quality parameters. Knowledge of the process-determining cause-effect relationships is necessary to ensure that different quality parameters are in the target value at the same time. Based on experimental tests, these interrelationships are determined using methods of statistical test planning and serve as the basis for model-based quality control. As a result, it has been shown that the targeted control of the component angle is possible in a range of about ±1° by using the control parameters, tool temperature and pressure, which have a significant influence on the quality. In the next step, further quality characteristics are included in the control system in order to demonstrate the ability to control the quality of complex component specifications. Model-based quality control is particularly promising for the reduction of the process run-in phase and thus for the reduction of the reject rate.