Transmission electron microscopy of interfaces in structural ceramic composites

Ceramic composites based either on a particulate, fibre or a lamellar architecture are potentially useful as damage-tolerant high-temperature engineering materials. The ability of the interfaces in such systems to deflect cracks is vital to the damage tolerance of these materials. Transmission electron microscopy techniques enable the chemical and physical characterization of these interfaces, providing information on interlayer thicknesses, chemical species, local bonding and the microstructural features which give rise to the interfacial properties, thereby enabling a full understanding not only of composites after processing, but also after exposure to aggressive environments such as air at high temperature. Examples of the application of transmission electron microscopy to all three composite architectures are described.     

Fiber Reinforced Laminates: Progressive Damage Modeling Based on Failure Mechanisms

In the present article, computational modeling of progressive damage in continuous fiber reinforced laminates is considered. After a general review of modeling approaches and experimentally observed behavior of laminates, the focus is laid on predicting non-linear laminate behavior by models based on continuum damage mechanics. The wide variety of continuum damage models is demonstrated by example of three different damage models from the literature which are described in more detail. Finally, a ply level damage model developed by the authors is presented. The model is based on brittle failure mechanisms postulated by Puck and is able to capture several characteristics of the damage behavior of laminates. Furthermore, this brittle damage model is extended to include plastic shear deformations. It is shown, that the extended model capturing brittle damage and plastic strains leads to significant improvements in the prediction of the non-linear laminate behavior.     

Fatigue properties of monolithic and metal‐laminated aluminium open‐hole specimens

The results of fatigue and crack propagation tests carried out on dog‐bone specimens made of 2024‐T3 are described. Two types of specimens were investigated: the first was machined from a 1.27‐mm‐thick sheet, while the second was machined from a bonded metal‐laminated sheet, made of four 0.3‐mm‐thick layers. Crack propagation tests confirmed the high resistance of metal‐laminated sheets to the propagation of fatigue cracks, compared to monolithic sheets, once again. At the same time, standard fatigue tests, carried out up to the final failure of the specimens, demonstrated a comparable fatigue resistance of monolithic and laminated specimens. As a consequence, it can be concluded that fatigue cracks nucleated earlier in the metal‐laminated specimens, compared to the monolithic ones, but propagated more slowly. This behaviour was attributed to the presence of sharp edges in the inner laminas of metal‐laminated materials which cannot be eliminated by deburring. Additional tests were carried out on monolithic specimens containing burrs and sharp edges at the holes. These specimens were drilled and reamed after stacking and pressing them to form a package. The specimens were fatigue tested without deburring the holes. A decrease in the fatigue resistance was observed. The formation of burrs and sharp edges was additionally promoted by inserting plastic foils between the specimens during the machining operations. Fatigue resistance of these specimens is progressively lower.     

Finite element analysis to predict penetration and perforation of thick FRP laminates struck by projectiles

This paper examines the penetration and perforation of fibre-reinforced plastic (FRP) laminates struck by rigid projectiles with different nose shapes within a wide range of impact conditions using ABAQUS/Explicit code. It is assumed that the FRP laminate target response can be represented by a velocity dependent forcing function which eliminates discretizing the target as well as the need for a complex contact algorithm. The forcing function is then applied to the surface of the projectiles as boundary conditions in the numerical model. With this combined analytical and computational technique we can obtain the depth of penetration, residual velocity, ballistic limit, transient response in terms of time-histories of displacement/penetration, velocity and deceleration of the projectile. It is shown that the model predictions are in good correlation with available experimental data.     

Delaminations at the free edge of a composite laminate

The concept of a fracture process zone where damage takes place is used to analyse the delaminations at the free edges of angle ply laminates under uniaxial tension. The use of a fracture process zone removes the singularity in the interlaminar stresses and enables the initiation and growth of delaminations to be modelled for a perfect laminate without any assumed prior defects. Two different models for the stress displacement relationship in the fracture process zone are examined: a constant stress up to critical displacement and a linear relationship. Finite element analysis shows that there is little difference in the predictions obtained from the two models. An approximate analysis is presented for the constant stress stress-displacement model which is shown to agree with a finite element solution and experimental data. Hence it is argued that the approximate method using a constant stress model for the fracture process zone is sufficient for accurate prediction of delaminations.     

Modelling of fatigue damage progression and life of CFRP laminates

A progressive fatigue damage model has been developed for predicting damage accumulation and life of carbon fibre‐reinforced plastics (CFRP) laminates with arbitrary geometry and stacking sequence subjected to constant amplitude cyclic loading. The model comprises the components of stress analysis, fatigue failure analysis and fatigue material property degradation. Stress analysis of the composite laminate was performed by creating a three‐dimensional finite element model in the ANSYS FE code. Fatigue failure analysis was performed by using a set of Hashin‐type failure criteria and the Ye‐delamination criterion. Two types of material property degradations on the basis of element stiffness and strength were applied: a sudden degradation because of sudden failure detected by the fatigue failure criteria and a gradual degradation because of the nature of cyclic loading, which is driven by the increased number of cycles. The gradual degradation of the composite material was modelled by using functions relating the residual stiffness and residual strength of the laminate to the number of cycles. All model components have been programmed in the ANSYS FE code in order to create a user‐friendly macro‐routine. The model has been applied in two different quasi‐isotropic CFRP laminates subjected to tension–compression (T–C) fatigue and the predictions of fatigue life and damage accumulation as a function of the number of cycles were compared with experimental data available in the literature. A very good agreement was obtained.     

Tool materials influence on surface roughness and oversize in machining glass fiber reinforced polypropylene (GFR-PP) composites

Glass fiber reinforced Polypropylene (GFR-PP) is used in manufacturing industries like bicycles, auto bodies, aircraft, and civil applications due to superior properties. Machining of fiber-reinforced plastics is problematic especially when drilling due to their inherent in-homogeneity, anisotropy and limited plastic deformation. Drilling is often required to facilitate the assembly of the parts to get the final products. Surface quality in drilled composites is an essential design characteristic in many situations, such as accurate fits, aesthetic requirements, etc. The present work deals with detailed investigation on the influence of tool materials and machining parameters during drilling of GFR-PP composite material. The study mainly focused on machined surface quality such as surface roughness of the drilled hole and dimensional inaccuracies such as oversize of the hole. The better dimensional and surface quality of drilled hole is observed from solid carbide drill with a spindle speed of 2500?rpm and a feed rate of 0.05?mm/rev. Regression model is developed using experimental data for estimating the surface roughness and oversize. The developed model has high R-sq value which shows the strong relationship between the model and the response variables. The effect of drilling process parameters and associated interactions are discussed in detail.     

FATIGUE CRACK GROWTH BEHAVIOUR OF FIBRE-METAL LAMINATE GLARE-1 AND METAL LAMINATE 7475 WITH DIFFERENT BLUNT NOTCHES

Abstract— The fatigue crack growth behaviour of the fibre metal laminate "GLARE-1" has been investigated for different blunt notches in Constant Amplitude (CA) tests. In order to investigate the influence of the fibres, the same laminate material but containing no fibres (Laminate 7475) was also tested. The fatigue crack growth properties of GLARE-1 are superior to those of Laminate 7475. GLARE-1 shows lower crack growth velocities at the same K_nom values and in addition the crack growth rates decrease with increasing crack length. The Laminate 7475 shows typical metal behaviour for single crack propagation and accelerating crack growth with increasing crack length. In GLARE-1, multiple crack propagation takes place. The cracks propagate independent of each other and have similar crack growth rates, in part due to closure effects caused by the unbroken fibre layers.
The crack growth rates of specimens having a small root radius are higher in both materials than in specimens with a large notch radius. In GLARE-1, the superiority of a larger notch radius is more pronounced than in the Laminate 7475 and is attributed to a stronger crack closure effect owing to fibre bridging. The reason for the higher bridging capability in specimens containing larger notches is that less fibres are broken or damaged in the notch vicinity.     

缝合参数对复合材料板面内刚度和强度影响研究

通过数值计算和对37组18个试件的实验测试与分析,研究了四种缝合参数对缝合复合材料板面内刚度和强度的影响.结果表明:1) 缝合密度越大,缝合所产生的损伤就越大,对面内刚度的影响也就越大.几种常用缝合密度下的面内刚度差最大为纵向6%,横向11%,剪切9%;2) 缝合密度和缝合工艺水平对面内拉伸强度和剪切强度有很大影响,缝合引起的拉伸强度和剪切强度降低分别达14%和17%,而对面内压缩强度的影响很小,最大强度降不到4%.3) 当缝线方向与测试方向垂直时,可以得到较高的面内刚度值和较低的面内强度值.反之,当缝线方向与测试方向平行时,可以得到较低的面内刚度值和较高的面内强度值.最大变化幅值分别为21%和18%.     

对称层合板复合材料的屈曲变形解析

提出了如何利用2 元多项式位移函数来分析层合板复合材料的屈曲问题。在解析中同时 考虑到层合板的面外剪切变形。解析表明屈曲载荷在多项式项数大于20 以上时趋于稳定, 可得到 高精度的解。本文并对对称角铺设层合板进行了系统地数值解析, 明确了在各种边界拘束条件下 材料的工程弹性系数, 层合板长宽比, 铺层数, 层合角对屈曲载荷的影响, 从而以达到优化设计。同 时, 验证了本解析法对任意边界条件下的层合板的屈曲解析是非常有效的。