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Josh Carr Assignment1

composite questions

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17 views

Josh Carr Assignment1

composite questions

Uploaded by

Josh Carr
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Joshua Carr - u1171911

Assignment 1

Question 1
a) How do the individual properties of fibres and polymer resin contribute to the overall
mechanical properties of a composite material?

When you combine the separate composite materials together, resin/matrix and fibres, the
material combines the mechanical properties also. Because the fibres typically have high
strength or high stiffness (modulus), the overall material will adopt these properties, and a better
or mechanically favourable material will result than just having the fibre or matrix by themselves.
A good example is carbon fibres reinforced resin or thermoset polymer, which utilises the very
high tensile strength of carbon (and good compression strength) along with a weaker resin.
Even though the resin has less desirable materials, its ability to hold the carbon fibres together
and resist buckling, allows the transfer of forces in a material undergoing strain, therefore
resisting much higher stresses. The combination of properties must be useful and contribute to
an increase of mechanical properties for the overall material; hence the term composite
material.

b) What are some challenges that arise when combining two materials to create a composite
material, and how can these challenges be overcome?
The interface where the resin and fibre join (an infinitesimally small region), must be
satisfactorily bonded, otherwise this creates a weak point. This load transfer between fibre and
matrix must be complete and interrupted. A failure can occur before our ideal yield stress value,
if the fibre is not bonded or coupled to the matrix, and it simply pulls out, before the carbon fibre
yields/breaks. This issue is further compounded as it is typical of a catastrophic failure (sudden)
compared to some elongation you typically see when the fibre breaks (non pull out). It is
important to select the right matrix for your chosen fibre, and in particular some fibres need
more processing and special consideration before they are bonded/coupled in the matrix. Glass
fibre reinforced polymer composite is a common example of this interfacing/stress transfer
issue, and to mitigate this they have a special coating or sizing agent that the fibres undergo
before the polymer is added (typically resin). This multipurpose aqueous solution ensures
interface bonding so the loads of the fibre and matrix are transferred, and stress is distributed to
the whole composite, and pullout is avoided. Also the fibres need to be long enough to transfer
the loads, this length is known as the critical fibre length. For shorter fibres the matrix material
has high shear stress near the ends of the fibre, which is not ideal. For longer fibres the stress
occurs in the fibre which is desirable because of the higher mechanical properties.
Joshua Carr - u1171911

c) Fibre reinforced materials are very strong in the direction of the fibres, however, they are
weak in the transverse direction – explain why?

Fibres used in composite materials are typically made from carbon, glass, and even organic or
natural materials like silk. These materials have very desirable properties in the longitudinal
direction. This alignment is the chemical nature in these materials and is inherent in the
manufacturing of synthetic materials. The matrix is able to transfer these loads when they act in
the longitudinal direction (tension or compression) quite easily, as the interface is coupled over a
long distance. Both stress and strain are coupled, and the much stronger and stiffer/higher
modulus fibres are able to take the loads. When composite materials experience a load in the
transverse direction, not only are the fibres stressed in the perpendicular axis (weaker than
longitudinal) the matrix material is no longer strain coupled. Because the modulus of the matrix
is quite low compared to the modulus of the fibres, and hence overall material, we get a much
higher stress. This is undesirable as the material will fail at a much sooner time (lower loads)
and the mechanical properties of the composite aren't fully utilised. Simply put the matrix is
trying to do more work and we are using those mechanical properties, not the fibre. THe
orientation of our fibres and the direction of the loads experienced in relation to those fibres is
important. In order to find the composite materials actual properties, the stress and strain need
to be calculated by comparing all fibre orientations.

Question 2
Given a unidirectional lamina made of glass fibres and polyester resin, and material properties:
Ef = 76 GPa and Em = 3 GPa
a) Calculate the composite moduli E1 and E2 for a fibre volume fraction of 0.31, where X is the
last digit of your student number.
Joshua Carr - u1171911

`b) What is the optimal volume fraction of fibres for this unidirectional lamina made of glass
fibres and polyester resin?
Joshua Carr - u1171911

The theoretical optimum for volume fraction, with respect to modulus, can be found by
differentiating the modulus and setting it to zero (min/max). E1 = Ef * Vf + Em * (1 - Vf) Where:
E1 = Longitudinal modulus of the composite Ef = Fiber modulus Em = Matrix modulus Vf = Fiber
volume fraction.
But we dont know density of these materials. Typically the optimum is around 80-90% fibre to
matrix or Vf of 0.6-0.8

This is known as the rule of mixtures and the optimum volume of fibres Vf = Af/A, sits at the end
of the linear line between Em and Ef. Theoretically it would be 1 but then there would be no
resin so it will lie slightly lower than that

c) What is the expected change in modulus when the fibres in the unidirectional lamina are
oriented at 45°?

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