Short‐beam three‐point bend tests in syntactic foams. Part II: Effect of microballoons content on shear strength

Epoxy binders containing microballoons ranging from 38.5 to 57.7% by volume were cast in a mold and cured, and the resulting slabs were sectioned to yield short‐beam test coupons. The strength changes with microballoons content were noted. These reveal an increase from 3.87 to 5.79 MPa for a decrease in microballoons content from 57.7 to 38.5%. Mechanical data were correlated with fractographic features employing scanning electron microscope. The failure features involving the microballoons and interface regions are highlighted in this article. The works show the existence of a dependence of strength parameters on the inter‐microballoon distances. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 98: 680–686, 2005     

Short‐beam three‐point bend test study in syntactic foam. Part III: Effects of interface modification on strength and fractographic features

Syntactic foam slabs having uncoated microballoons and paraffin oil surface‐treated microballoons were fabricated and tested for short‐beam three‐point bend test. The work points to the role of paraffin oil coating first weakening the interface between the microballoons and the matrix and hence lowering the efficiency of load transfer from matrix to the fillers (i.e., microballoons). This led to an overall decrement of 71% in the experimentally measured strength value compared to the deduced value for uncoated microballoons' specimens. The large strengths for uncoated microballoons specimens can be traced to the presence of the curvilinear marks in the matrix that, incidentally, are absent in the case of paraffin oil coated specimens. These observations are revealed distinctly in the microscopy of test‐failed specimens. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 98: 687–693, 2005     

Short‐beam and three‐point‐bending tests for the study of shear and flexural properties in unidirectional‐fiber‐reinforced epoxy composites

The bending properties of composite materials are often characterized with simply supported beams under concentrated loads. The results from such tests are commonly based on homogeneous beam equations. For laminated materials, however, these formulas must be modified to account for the stacking sequence of the individual plies. The horizontal shear test with a short‐beam specimen in three‐point bending appears suitable as a general method of evaluation for the shear properties in fiber‐reinforced composites because of its simplicity. In the experimental part of this work, the shear strength of unidirectional‐glass‐fiber‐reinforced epoxy resin composites was determined in different fiber directions with the short‐beam three‐point‐bending test. Also, the elastic constants and flexural properties of the same materials were determined from bending experiments carried out on specimens in the 0, 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, and 90° fiber directions with high span–thickness ratios. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 93: 63–74, 2004     

Kinetic studies of the chemical polymerization of substituted aniline in aqueous solutions and characterization of the polymer obtained Part 1. 3‐Chloroaniline

Aqueous polymerization of 3‐chloroaniline (mCA) was studied using sodium dichromate as oxidant in the presence of hydrochloric acid. The effect of hydrochloric acid, sodium dichromate and monomer concentration on the polymerization rate, specific viscosity of the obtained polymer and ac conductivity was investigated. The initial and overall reaction rates increase with increasing hydrochloric acid concentration or sodium dichromate concentration, but decrease with increasing monomer concentration. The specific viscosity values (η_sp) increase with increasing hydrochloric acid concentration or monomer concentration, which means that the molecular weight of the polymer samples increases accordingly. On the contrary, the molecular weight decreases with increasing sodium dichromate concentration. The highest ac conductivity value of the obtained polymer was found for 0.0255 mol l⁻¹ of Na₂Cr₂O₇, 0.8 mol l⁻¹ HCl and 0.0956 mol l⁻¹ monomer concentration in the reaction medium. The order of the polymerization reaction with respect to hydrochloric acid, Na₂Cr₂O₇ and monomer concentration was found to be 1.0, 0.9 and 0.75, respectively. The apparent activation energy (E_a) for this polymerization system was found to be 13.674 × 10⁴ mol⁻¹. The obtained poly(3‐chloroaniline) was characterized by UV–visible, IR and ¹H NMR spectroscopy. X‐ray diffraction analysis and electron microscopy studies were carried out. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential thermal analysis (DTA) results were used to confirm the structure. © 2001 Society of Chemical Industry     

Analysis of a pull-out test with real specimen geometry. Part I: matrix droplet in the shape of a spherical segment

We compared two models of the pull-out specimen – the ‘equivalent cylinder’ and the platelet models in which the matrix droplet is represented as a set of thin parallel disks with the diameters varying along the embedded fiber to approximate the real droplet shape. Analytical expressions for the profiles of the fiber tensile stress and the interfacial shear stress have been derived for the matrix droplet in the shape of a spherical segment, including the effects of residual thermal stresses and interfacial friction. Using these expressions, we analyzed the process of crack initiation and propagation in the platelet model and investigated the effect of the specimen shape on the force–displacement curves. The interfacial stress near the loaded fiber end in the platelet model is higher than in the equivalent cylinder model, which gives rise to earlier crack initiation and smoother shape of the force–displacement curve. As a result, the calculated interfacial shear strength values may be underestimated by 10–20%, if the equivalent cylinder is used instead of the real droplet shape. A method of correction to the equivalent cylinder model in order to avoid this underestimation is proposed.     

Indirect estimation of fiber/polymer bond strength and interfacial friction from maximum load values recorded in the microbond and pull-out tests. Part I: local bond strength

The techniques aimed at adhesion strength measurement between reinforcing fibers and polymer matrices (the pull-out and microbond tests) involve the measurement of the force, F _max, required to pull out a fiber whose end is embedded in the matrix. Then, this maximum force value is used to calculate such interfacial parameters as the apparent bond strength, τ_app, and the local interfacial shear strength (IFSS), τ_d. However, it has been demonstrated that the F _max value is influenced by interfacial friction in already debonded regions, and, therefore, these parameters are not purely 'adhesional' but depend, in an intricate way, on interfacial adhesion and friction. In the last few years, several techniques for separate determination of adhesion and friction in micromechanical tests have been developed, but their experimental realization is rather complicated, because they require an accurate value of the external load at the moment of crack initiation. We have developed a new technique which uses the relationship between the maximum force and the embedded length ('scale factor') to separately measure fiber-matrix interfacial adhesion and friction. Using the equation for the current crack length as a function of the applied load, based on a stress criterion of interfacial debonding, we modeled the pull-out and microbond experiments and obtained the maximum force value versus the embedded length. By varying τ_d and interfacial friction, τ_f, to fit experimental plots, both interfacial parameters were estimated. The micromechanical tests were modeled for three types of specimen geometries (cylindrical specimens, spherical droplets, and matrix hemispheres in the pull-out test) with different levels of residual thermal stresses and interfacial friction. The effect of all these factors on the experimental results is discussed, and the importance of specimen geometry is demonstrated. One of the most interesting results is that the 'ultimate' IFSS (the limiting τ_app as the embedded length tends to zero) is not always equal to the 'local' bond strength.