Mechanical Property Characterization of Polymeric Composites Reinforced by Continuous Microfibers

<p>Innumerable experimental works have been conducted to study the effect of polymerization on the potential properties of the composites. Experimental techniques are employed to understand the effects of various fibers, their volume fractions and matrix properties in polymer composites. However, these experiments require fabrication of various composites which are time consuming and cost prohibitive. Advances in computational micromechanics allow us to study the various polymer based composites by using finite element simulations. The mechanical properties of continuous fiber composite strands are directional. In traditional continuous fiber laminated composites, all fibers lie in the same plane. This provides very desirable increases in the in-plane mechanical properties, but little in the transverse mechanical properties. The effect of different fiber/matrix combinations with various orientations is also available. Overall mechanical properties of different micro continuous fiber reinforced composites with orthogonal geometry are still unavailable in the contemporary research field. In this research, the mechanical properties of advanced polymeric composite reinforced by continuous micro fiber will be characterized based on analytical investigation and FE computational modeling. Initially, we have chosen IM7/PEEK, Carbon Fiber/Nylon 6, and Carbon Fiber/Epoxy as three different case study materials for analysis. To obtain the equivalent properties of the micro-hetero structures, a concept of micro-scale representative volume elements (RVEs) is introduced. Five types of micro scale RVEs (3 square and 2 hexagonal) containing a continuous micro fiber in the polymer matrix were designed. Uniaxial tensile, lateral expansion and transverse shear tests on each RVE were designed and conducted by the finite element computer modeling software ANSYS. The formulae based on elasticity theory were derived for extracting the equivalent mechanical properties (Young’s moduli, shear moduli, and Poisson’s ratios) from the numerical solutions of the RVEs undergone these three load tests. Validation of the obtained microscale mechanical properties will be performed using rule of mixture (ROM), 1st, and 2nd order of the mathematical model and experimental data.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science (MS)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis - Open Access

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Mechanical Engineering

Year dc:date.available

2016

Author dc:creator

• Zubayar, Ali

Contributors dc:contributor

• Zhong Hu

• Mechanical Engineering

Licence

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Repository record dc:identifier

https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/etd/960

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:openprairie.sdstate.edu:etd-1961