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The necessity for recyclable materials in wind energy applications has fueled research in glass fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites to replace their thermoset counterparts. Toward demonstrating that infusible acrylic resins can replace epoxy based composite systems in wind blade manufacturing, comprehensive static test protocols were performed, and the resulting data are presented. Specifically, unidirectional and biaxial (±45) continuous E-glass reinforced thermoplastic and epoxy laminates were prepared in four and eight ply laminates. Physical properties were characterized including density, fiber volume fraction, and glass transition temperatures, together with mechanical properties for tensile, compression, and shear responses. Comprehensive evaluation of these data supports infusible acrylic thermoplastic resin systems as viable alternative prospects to replace epoxies in E-glass reinforced wind blades as verified by comparable results for both composite systems.

Metastable austenitic stainless steel (304L) samples with a rectangular cross-section were plastically deformed in torsion during which they experienced multiaxial stresses that led to a complex martensitic phase distribution owing to the transformation induced plasticity effect. A three-dimensional characterization of the phase distributions in these cm-sized samples was carried out by wavelength-selective neutron tomography. It was found that quantitatively correct results are obtained as long as the samples do not exhibit any considerable preferential grain orientation. Optical microscopy, electron backscatter diffraction, and finite element modeling were used to verify and explain the results obtained by neutron tomography. Altogether, neutron tomography was shown to extend the range of microstructure characterization methods towards the meso- and macroscale.

The role of partial saturation in penetration resistance of projectiles in granular materials is not clear due to experimental constraints imposed by high cost and special considerations in equipment design. In this work, granular material near the tip and far-field of the projectile is numerically simulated based on 1D compression and triaxial stress paths, respectively, using the finite discrete element method. The crushing of grains in 1D compression simulations is implemented by pre-inserting cohesive interface elements in regular finite element mesh. The capillary suction is numerically predicted by extracting the deformed granular assembly microstructure at different loading steps as an input to the pore morphology method. The results demonstrate the development of high capillary suction in 1D compression loading due to the significant crushing of grains. The evolution of capillary suction is negligible during triaxial loading compared to the 1D compression loading. This suggests that future simulations related to projectile penetration in partially saturated granular materials should account for coupled hydromechanical effects near the tip whereas the far-field can be approximated as a dry material. Finally, the capillary suction corresponding to extreme comminution near the projectile tip is estimated from a 3D assembly of spherical grains with a mean grain size of 1 µm.

The high cost of carbon fiber composites often limits their use in automotive applications. This paper describes the study of an emerging class of materials, chopped fiber reinforced thermoplastic (polyphenylene sulfide) organosheets that provide mechanical properties exceeding sheet molding compounds at low material and manufacturing cost with long shelf life at room temperature. The tensile and shear properties were found to be directionally-dependent, while the impact of void content on these properties was small. It was shown that tensile testing of the dry preforms can serve as a method of screening the degree of anisotropy, reducing the need for extensive processing trials. Due to the anisotropy and microstructure variance of these materials, designs must encompass laminate stacking sequence and the variability in mechanical properties. Monte Carlo simulations of composite lamination theory utilizing stochastic mechanical properties conservatively predict the mechanical properties of organosheet laminates. This paper offers one of the first in-depth evaluations of this novel new class of composite materials made of repurposed/recycled carbon fiber.

Fiber-reinforced polymer composites are an excellent choice for bridge decks due to high strength, lightweight, resistance to corrosion, and long-term durability with a 100-year design life. Structural health monitoring is useful for the long-term assessment of the condition of the bridge structure and obtaining a response to complex loads considering environmental conditions. Bridge structures have been studied primarily using distributed fiber optic sensing, such as Brillouin scattering; however, critical events, including damage detection, can be missed due to low spatial resolution. There is also a critical need to conduct a comprehensive study of static and dynamic loading simultaneously for fiber-reinforced composite bridge structures. In this study, a novel approach was implemented using two sensor technologies, optical frequency domain reflectometry and fiber Bragg grating-based sensors, embedded in a glass-fiber-reinforced composite bridge deck to simultaneously monitor the deformation response of the bridge structure. The optical frequency domain reflectometry sensor utilizing Rayleigh scattering provides high spatial strain resolution were positioned strategically based on expected stress distributions to measure strain in the longitudinal, transverse, and diagonal directions along the span of the composite bridge. Furthermore, fiber Bragg grating based sensors are used to monitor the response to dynamic vehicular loading and deformations from an automotive-crash-type event on the bridge structure. To monitor environmental variables such as temperature, a custom wireless configured sensor package was developed for the study and integrated with a composite bridge located in Morgan County, Tennessee. Additionally, a triaxial accelerometer was used to monitor the vehicular dynamic loading of the composite bridge deck in parallel with fiber Bragg grating sensors. When appropriate, mid-point displacements were compared with strain-distribution measurements from the fiber optic sensor-based data.

Structural health monitoring of fiber-reinforced composite-based joints for automotive applications during their manufacturing and on-demand assessment for its durability in working environments is critically needed. High-definition fiber-optic sensing is an effective method to measure internal strain/stress development using minimally invasive continuous sensors. The sensing fiber diameters are in the same order of magnitude when compared to reinforcement (glass, basalt, or carbon fibers) used in polymer composites. They also offer a unique ability to monitor the evolution of residual stresses after repeated thermal exposure with varying temperatures for automotive components/joints during painting using an electrophoretic painting process. In this paper, a high-definition fiber-optic sensor utilizing Rayleigh scattering is embedded within an adhesive joint between a carbon fiber-reinforced thermoset composite panel and an aluminum panel to measure spatially resolved strain development, residual strain, and thermal expansion properties during the electrophoretic paint process-simulated conditions. The strain measured by the continuous fiber-optic sensor was compared with an alternate technique using thermal digital image correlation. The fiber-optic sensor was able to identify the spatial variation of residual strains for a discontinuous carbon fiber-reinforced composite with varying local fiber orientations and resin content.

Abstract  The present paper deals with the impact of shear deformation on the geometric arrangement of particles within the soil specimen, which is termed as the microfabric of soil. A series of compression and extension lubricated end triaxial tests are performed on cylindrical specimens of Kaolinite clay with two extreme microfabrics; dispersed and flocculated, which are obtained using slurry consolidation technique. Flocculated microfabric has random orientation of particles within the soil mass having face-to-edge particle contacts; however, dispersed microfabric has parallel orientation of particles containing face-to-face particle contacts. When the specimen is subjected to large stress levels during its shear deformation, the particle orientation and the geometric arrangement within the soil specimen gets affected due to the force acting on the clay platelets. The variation in microfabric of soil before and after shear deformation process is evaluated by obtaining X-ray diffraction patterns of the clay specimen at three different locations using standard X-ray diffractometer. The discussion includes an analysis of the orientation of soil particles located at shear banding zones of the clay specimens, which may be useful for understanding the strain localization development in clays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract  A new method is introduced in this study to identify the microfabric (geometric arrangement of platelets) of cohesive soil using standard X-ray diffractometer. Various sampling techniques are used to prepare the Kaolinite clay samples with different microfabrics to assess the consistency and versatility of the proposed method. This method is based on identifying the presence of basal and prism peaks from the X-ray diffraction pattern and corresponding relative intensity values. The present study also demonstrates the conditions for which Scanning Electron Micrographs (SEM) are not capable of accurately identifying the microfabric of cohesive soils. The method proposed in this study uses relative amplitudes of basal and prism peaks avoiding difficult sample and surface preparation procedures, as used by previous researchers in their microfabric identification methods. The proposed method is found to be a rapid and accurate method for identifying the microfabric of Kaolinite clay and should prove to be valuable for routine implementation for studying structured natural clays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractMechanical and time-dependent mechanical properties of lyocell fibers have been investigated as a function of depth at a nano-scale level in longitudinal and transverse directions. The nanoindentation technique was applied and extended to continuous stiffness measurement. Lyo10 and Lyo13 lyocell fibers were investigated. The individual fiber properties were measured using a nano-tensile testing system to obtain reference data for mechanical properties. The hardness and elastic modulus obtained from nanoindentation test are described using two different approaches. The first uses mean values for a depth of 150–300 nm, while the second uses unloading values at the final indentation depth. There is no significant difference between modulus values inferred from nanoindentation and those obtained from single fiber tensile testing. Hardness and elastic modulus values were higher in the longitudinal direction than those in the transverse direction and Lyo13 values were higher than those for Lyo10 in both directions. The time-dependent mechanical properties were also investigated as a function of the holding time. Increasing the holding time led to an increase in indentation displacement and a decrease in hardness. Stress exponents were calculated from the linear relationship between contact stress and contact strain using a power-law creep equation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]