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Characterization and Mechanics of Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Matrix Composites
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Characterization and Mechanics of Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Matrix Composites

A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Advanced Composites".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2021) | Viewed by 7971

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Michael May

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Fraunhofer Institute for High-Speed Dynamics, Ernst-Mach-Institut, EMI Ernst-Zermelo-Straße 4, 79104 Freiburg, Germany
Interests: delamination; crash; impact; high-rate behavior; fracture toughness

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Polymer matrix composite materials have been introduced in several industries, such as the aerospace sector, automotive sector, and wind energy sector, due to their excellent weight-specific mechanical properties. In recent years, more and more sophisticated models have been developed attempting to describe the behavior of polymer matrix composites under quasi-static, thermal, cyclic, or high-rate loading. The availability of these simulation models provides a foundation for predictive simulation of composite materials. However, a key requirement for predictive numerical simulation of complex loading scenarios, for example, the simulation of a car crash or fatigue loading under complex, multi-axial loading states is the availability of trustworthy, high-quality material data. Over the years, several test methods have been standardized for unidirectional composites subjected to quasi-static loading. However, if the architecture of the composite changes (for example, to braided or woven composites) or if the loading conditions vary (for example, fatigue loading, combined thermal and mechanical loading, and high-rate loading) there are nearly no standardized test methods.

This Special Issue, therefore, seeks original papers on advanced test methods for polymer matrix composite materials. In particular, new ideas on measuring strain-rate dependent material properties, hygro-thermal effects, fatigue loading, multi-axial loading, and fracture mechanical methods are solicited.

It is my pleasure to invite you to submit a manuscript to this Special Issue. Full papers, communications, and reviews are all welcome.

Dr. Michael May
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Materials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Polymer matrix composites 
  • Mechanical testing 
  • High-cycle fatigue 
  • Hygro-thermal loading 
  • Multi-axial loading 
  • Strain-rate dependent properties 
  • Delamination 
  • Fracture mechanics 
  • Digital image correlation 
  • New measurement techniques 
  • Strength 
  • Stiffness
  • Braided composites 
  • Woven composites 
  • Unidirectional composites

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 12875 KiB  
Article
Cyclic Relaxation, Impact Properties and Fracture Toughness of Carbon and Glass Fiber Reinforced Composite Laminates
by Mohammed Y. Abdellah, Mohamed K. Hassan, Ahmed F. Mohamed and Ahmed H. Backar
Materials 2021, 14(23), 7412; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14237412 - 03 Dec 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1829
Abstract
In this paper, the mechanical properties of fiber-reinforced epoxy laminates are experimentally tested. The relaxation behavior of carbon and glass fiber composite laminates is investigated at room temperature. In addition, the impact strength under drop-weight loading is measured. The hand lay-up technique is [...] Read more.
In this paper, the mechanical properties of fiber-reinforced epoxy laminates are experimentally tested. The relaxation behavior of carbon and glass fiber composite laminates is investigated at room temperature. In addition, the impact strength under drop-weight loading is measured. The hand lay-up technique is used to fabricate composite laminates with woven 8-ply carbon and glass fiber reinforced epoxy. Tensile tests, cyclic relaxation tests and drop weight impacts are carried out on the carbon and glass fiber-reinforced epoxy laminates. The surface release energy GIC and the related fracture toughness KIC are important characteristic properties and are therefore measured experimentally using a standard test on centre-cracked specimens. The results show that carbon fiber-reinforced epoxy laminates with high tensile strength give high cyclic relaxation performance, better than the specimens with glass fiber composite laminates. This is due to the higher strength and stiffness of carbon fiber-reinforced epoxy with 600 MPa compared to glass fiber-reinforced epoxy with 200 MPa. While glass fibers show better impact behavior than carbon fibers at impact energies between 1.9 and 2.7 J, this is due to the large amount of epoxy resin in the case of glass fiber composite laminates, while the impact behavior is different at impact energies between 2.7 and 3.4 J. The fracture toughness KIC is measured to be 192 and 31 MPa √m and the surface energy GIC is measured to be 540.6 and 31.1 kJ/m2 for carbon and glass fiber-reinforced epoxy laminates, respectively. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Characterization and Mechanics of Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Matrix Composites)
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19 pages, 6617 KiB  
Article
Processing and Testing of Reinforced PA66 Based Composites
by Alejandro Pereira, Alberto Tielas, Teresa Prado, Maria Fenollera and José Antonio Pérez
Materials 2021, 14(23), 7299; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14237299 - 29 Nov 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1915
Abstract
The new requirements in different sectors, such as aerospace, automotive and construction, for lightweight materials have led to an increase in demand for composite materials suitable for use in high rate production processes, such as plastic injection. This makes it necessary to look [...] Read more.
The new requirements in different sectors, such as aerospace, automotive and construction, for lightweight materials have led to an increase in demand for composite materials suitable for use in high rate production processes, such as plastic injection. This makes it necessary to look for matrices and reinforcements that, in addition to being compatible with each other, are also compatible with the injection process. It is in this area of research where the work presented here arises. To meet the two requirements mentioned above, this study contemplates a battery of composite materials obtained by combining PA66 and fiberglass, in different proportions and configuration, both for the preparation of the matrix and for reinforcement. For the elaboration of the matrix, two options have been evaluated, PA66 and PA66 reinforced at 35% with short glass fibre. To obtain reinforcement, six different options have been evaluated; two conventional fiberglass fabrics (each with different density) and four hybrid fabrics obtained from the previous ones by adding PA66 in different configurations (two over-stitched fabrics and two other fabrics). The different composite materials obtained were validated by means of the corresponding adhesion, peeling and resistance tests. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Characterization and Mechanics of Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Matrix Composites)
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7 pages, 1678 KiB  
Article
A Modified Compact Tension Test for Characterization of the Intralaminar Fracture Toughness of Tri-Axial Braided Composites
by Michael May, Sebastian Kilchert and Tobias Gerster
Materials 2021, 14(17), 4890; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14174890 - 27 Aug 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1557
Abstract
The application of braided composite materials in the automotive industry requires an in-depth understanding of the mechanical properties. To date, the intralaminar fracture toughness of braided composite materials, typically used for describing post-failure behavior, has not been well-characterized experimentally. In this paper, a [...] Read more.
The application of braided composite materials in the automotive industry requires an in-depth understanding of the mechanical properties. To date, the intralaminar fracture toughness of braided composite materials, typically used for describing post-failure behavior, has not been well-characterized experimentally. In this paper, a modified compact tension test, utilizing a relatively large specimen and a metallic loading frame, is used to measure the transverse intralaminar fracture toughness of a tri-axial braided composite. During testing, a relatively long fracture process zone ahead of the crack tip was observed. Crack propagation could be correlated to the failure of individual unit cells, which required failure of bias-yarns. The transverse interlaminar fracture toughness was found to be two orders of magnitude higher than the reference interlaminar fracture toughness of the same material. This is due to the fact, that intralaminar crack propagation requires breaking of fibers, which is not the case for interlaminar testing. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Characterization and Mechanics of Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Matrix Composites)
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17 pages, 6353 KiB  
Article
Testing Procedure for Fatigue Characterization of Steel-CFRP Hybrid Laminate Considering Material Dependent Self-Heating
by Selim Mrzljak, Stefan Schmidt, Andreas Kohl, Daniel Hülsbusch, Joachim Hausmann and Frank Walther
Materials 2021, 14(12), 3394; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14123394 - 18 Jun 2021
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 1952
Abstract
Combining carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) with steel offers the potential of utilizing the desired characteristics of both materials, such as specific strength/stiffness and fatigue strength of fiber reinforced polymers (FRP) and impact resistance of metals. Since in such hybrid laminates multiple material [...] Read more.
Combining carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) with steel offers the potential of utilizing the desired characteristics of both materials, such as specific strength/stiffness and fatigue strength of fiber reinforced polymers (FRP) and impact resistance of metals. Since in such hybrid laminates multiple material layers are combined, a gradual failure is likely that can lead to changes in mechanical properties. A failure of the metal partner leads to an increase in stress on the FRP, which under fatigue load results in increased self-heating of the FRP. Therefore, a suitable testing procedure is required and developed in this study, to enable a reproducible characterization of the mechanical properties under fatigue load. The resulting testing procedure, containing multiple frequency tests as well as load increase and constant amplitude tests, enabled characterization of the fatigue performance while never exceeding a testing induced change in temperature of 4 K. In addition to the development of the testing procedure, an insight into the manufacturing induced residual stresses occurring in such hybrid laminates, which impacts the load-bearing capacity, was established using finite element simulation. The gathered data and knowledge represents a basis for future in-depth investigations in the area of residual stress influence on the performance of hybrid laminates and highlights its importance, since not only the used testing procedure determines the measured fatigue performance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Characterization and Mechanics of Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Matrix Composites)
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