Characterization of sea water ageing effects on mechanical properties of carbon/epoxy composites for tidal turbine blades

In recent years, many tidal turbine projects have been developed using composites blades. Tidal turbine blades are subject to ocean forces and sea water aggressions, and the reliability of these components is crucial to the profitability of ocean energy recovery systems. The majority of tidal turbine developers have preferred carbon/epoxy blades, so there is a need to understand how prolonged immersion in the ocean affects these composites. In this study the long term behaviour of different carbon/epoxy composites has been studied using accelerated ageing tests. A significant reduction of composite strengths has been observed after saturation of water in the material. For longer immersions only small further changes in these properties occur. No significant changes have been observed for moduli nor for composite toughness. The effect of sea water ageing on damage thresholds and kinetics has been studied and modelled. After saturation, the damage threshold is modified while kinetics of damage development remain the same.     

Characteristics and formation mechanism of porosities in CFRP during laser joining of CFRP and steel

An experimental investigation on the mechanism of porosity formation during the laser joining of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) and steel is presented. The porosity morphology and distribution were characterized by optical and scanning electron microscopy, and the thermal pyrolysis behaviors were investigated by thermal analysis and designed back-side cooling experiments. The results show that there are two types of porosities in CFRP. Porosity I only appears when the heat input is more than 77.8 J/mm. It has a smooth inner wall and distributes near the bonding interface between CFRP and steel at the central area of melted zone, which is caused by gaseous products such as CO₂, NH₃, H₂O, and hydrocarbons produced by the pyrolysis of CFRP. Porosity II can be seen under all joining conditions. It has a rough inner wall and distributes far away from the bonding interface, concentrating at the final solidification locations. Porosity II is caused by the shrinkage of melted CFRP during solidification stage.     

Impact behavior and fractographic study of carbon nanotubes grafted carbon fiber-reinforced epoxy matrix multi-scale hybrid composites

Carbon nanotubes are the most promising reinforcement for high performance composites. Multiwall carbon nanotubes were directly grown onto the carbon fiber surface by catalytic thermal chemical vapor deposition technique. Multi-scale hybrid composites were fabricated using the carbon nanotubes grown fibers with epoxy matrix. Morphology of the grown carbon nanotubes was investigated using field emission scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The fabricated composites were subjected to impact tests which showed 48.7% and 42.2% higher energy absorption in Charpy and Izod impact tests respectively. Fractographic analysis of the impact tested specimens revealed the presence of carbon nanotubes both at the fiber surface and within the matrix which explained the reason for improved energy absorption capability of these composites. Carbon nanotubes presence at various cracks formed during loading provided a direct evidence of micro crack bridging. Thus the enhanced fracture strength of these composites is attributed to stronger fiber–matrix interfacial bonding and simultaneous matrix strengthening due to the grown carbon nanotubes.     

Sol–gel synthesis of Nd-doped BiFeO3 multiferroic and its characterization

Neodymium doped bismuth ferrite (BiFeO₃, BFO) nanoparticles were successfully synthesized by a facile sol–gel route. The influence of annealing temperature, time, Bi content and solvent on the crystal structure of BFO was studied. Results indicated that the optimum processing condition of BFO products was 550–600 °C/1.5 h with excess 3–6% Bi and ethylene glycol as solvent. On the other hand, Nd³⁺ ion was introduced into the BFO system and the effect of Nd³⁺ concentration on the structure, magnetic and dielectric properties of BFO were investigated. It was found that the magnetization of BFO was enhanced significantly with Nd³⁺ substitution, being attributed to the suppression of the spiral cycloidal magnetic structure led by the crystal structure transition. Furthermore, with increasing Nd³⁺ content, the dielectric constant was found to decrease while the dielectric loss was enhanced, which was mainly due to the hoping conduction mechanism with the reduction of oxygen vacancies.     

Mechanical damage characterization of glass fiber-reinforced polymer laminates by ultrasonic maps

A method for simultaneous measurement of the thickness and density for Glass Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) laminate plates with ultrasonic waves in C-Scan mode is presented in the form of maps. The method uses three different signals in immersion pulse-echo C-Scan mode. The maps obtained based on the density show the heterogeneity of the material at high resolution at the pixel level (1 × 1 mm²) and therefore they represent an efficient tool to assess and evaluate the damage of the composite structures after manufacturing and after an applied mechanical loading.     

A methodology for the estimation of transverse failure strength of an oxidized lamina from isothermal aging studies

Surface oxidation and ensuing damage substantially decrease the service life of High Temperature Polymer Matrix Composite (HTPMC) structures. Oxidative degradation behavior of composites is strongly dependent on the coupling between chemical and mechanical responses of the material. In a composite lamina, the onset of damage and subsequent coupled acceleration of both damage and oxidation are controlled by the transverse failure strength of the oxidized regions. The direct measurement of this strength from experimentation is challenging and cumbersome. A model-based methodology for estimating the mean transverse failure strength of the oxidized regions of a unidirectional composite is described in this paper. As the strength of the oxidized region is expected to show a high-degree of spatial variability, the estimated mean is shown to be relatively insensitive to the effect of strength variance. The developed methodology is illustrated with isothermal aging data available for a typical high-temperature composite system.     

Synergistic effect of co-alloying elements on site preferences and elastic properties of Ni3Al: A first-principles study

The site preferences of co-alloying elements (Mo–Ta, Mo–Re, Mo–Cr) in Ni₃Al are studied using first-principles calculations, and the effects of these alloying elements on the elastic properties of Ni₃Al are evaluated by elastic property calculations. The results show that the Mo–Ta, Mo–Re and Mo–Cr atom pairs all prefer Al–Al sites and the spatial neighbor relation of substitution sites almost has no influence on the site preference results. Furthermore, the Young's modulus of Ni₃Al increases much higher by substituting Al–Al sites with co-alloying atoms, among which Mo–Re has the best strengthening effect. The enhanced chemical bondings between alloying atoms and their neighbor host atoms are considered to be the main strengthening mechanism of the alloying elements in Ni₃Al.     

In-situ TEM observation of structural changes in nano-crystalline CoCrCuFeNi multicomponent high-entropy alloy (HEA) under fast electron irradiation by high voltage electron microscopy (HVEM)

The structural changes induced in a CoCrCuFeNi multicomponent nano-crystalline high-entropy alloy (HEA) under fast electron irradiation were investigated by in-situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM) using a high voltage electron microscope (HVEM). A fine-grained face centered cubic (fcc) single phase was obtained in the sputtered specimens. The fcc solid solution showed high phase stability against irradiation over a wide temperature range from 298 to 773 K, and remained as the main constituent phase even when the samples were irradiated up to 40 displacement per atom (dpa). Moreover, the irradiation did not seem to induce grain coarsening. This is the first report on the irradiation damage in 5-component HEA under MeV electron irradiation.     

Effect of Ba nonstoichiometry on the phase composition,microstructure, chemical stability and electrical conductivity of BaxCe0.7Zr0.1Y0.1Yb0.1O3−δ (0.9≤x≤1.1) proton conductors

The perovskite proton conductors Ba_xCe_0.7Zr_0.1Y_0.1Yb_0.1O_3−δ (x=0.9, 0.94, 0.98, 1.0, 1.03, 1.06, and 1.1) have been successfully prepared by the conventional solid state reaction route. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of the samples indicate that Ba_xCe_0.7Zr_0.1Y_0.1Yb_0.1O_3−δ (x≥1.0) samples possess a single phase orthorhombic structure, but a secondary phase (Y,Ce)O_2−δ exists in Ba_xCe_0.7Zr_0.1Y_0.1Yb_0.1O_3−δ (x<1.0) samples. SEM photographs show that the grain size of Ba_xCe_0.7Zr_0.1Y_0.1Yb_0.1O_3−δ increases and the porosity decreases with Ba²⁺ content varying from x=0.9 to 1.1. Because of ZnO addition as sintering aid, the sintering temperature of the samples reduces from 1550 °C to 1250 °C. The chemical stability of the samples against CO₂ decreases with the increase in Ba content from x=0.9 to 1.1. All the samples show a excellent stability against water vapor at 850 °C. The conductivities of the samples increase and the activation energies reduce with the increase in Ba content. The present results suggest that it is very important to control the stoichiometry of cations to obtain desired perovskite type high temperature proton conductors.     

Thermal and transport properties of as-grown Ni-rich TiNi shape memory alloys

Electrical resistivity, Seebeck coefficient, specific heat and thermal conductivity measurements on the Ti_50−xNi_50+x (x = 0.0–1.6 at.%) shape memory alloys are performed to investigate their thermal and transport properties. In this study, anomalous features are observed in both cooling and heating cycles in all measured physical properties of the slightly Ni-rich TiNi alloys (x ≤ 1.0), corresponds to the transformation between the B19′ martensite and B2 austenite phases. Besides, the transition temperature is found to decrease gradually with increasing Ni content, and the driving force for the transition is also found to diminish slowly with the addition of excess Ni, as revealed by specific heat measurements. While the signature of martensitic transformation vanishes for the Ni-rich TiNi alloys with x ≥ 1.3, the characteristics of strain glass transition start to appear. The Seebeck coefficients of these TiNi alloys were found to be positive, suggesting the hole-type carriers dominate the thermoelectric transport. From the high-temperature Seebeck coefficients, the estimated value of Fermi energy ranges from ∼1.5 eV (Ti_48.4Ni_51.6) to ∼2.1 eV (Ti₅₀Ni₅₀), indicating the metallic nature of these alloys. In addition, the thermal conductivity of the slightly Ni-rich TiNi alloys with x ≤ 1.0 shows a distinct anomalous feature at the B19′ → B2 transition, likely due to the variation in lattice thermal conductivity.