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A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Manufacturing Processes and Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2020) | Viewed by 18339

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Special Issue Editor

Dr. Felice De Santis

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Guest Editor

1. Borealis Polyolefine GmbH, Linz, Austria
2. Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Salerno, Fisciano, Italy
Interests: polymer processing; crystallization kinetics; thermal analysis; structure-processing-property relationships; morphology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The 20^th century was considered the Age of Plastic. The extraordinary features of this new material have deeply influenced our lives, but also arising new issues and discussions. Perhaps it is time to imagine Polymers 2.0.

When going from polymer design to manufacturing and even recycling, to complete the cycle we have to reinvent plastics. Academia and industry have to face this challenge by considering the ability of polymers to modify their properties according to a peculiar structure. This could be hard, but it is also an opportunity; furthermore, it is one of the keys to the success of this class of materials. As an example, the “same” polymeric film can be transparent or opaque, light, tough, stiff, flexible or rigid, sealable but not sticky, and recyclable according to market demand.

The aim of this Special Issue is to collect a number of research or review papers, which can depict the state-of-the-art on the possible correlations between polymer design, processing, structure, and the special properties that the structure induces on the plastic part.

We welcome contributions on the following topics:

- Polymer design;

- The effect of polymer processing on resulting morphology, properties, and recyclability;

- Computational modelling, from synthesis to processing, as a tool for better design.

I hope that this interesting subject will encourage you to submit a manuscript to this Special Issue.

Dr. Felice De Santis
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

polymer architecture design
polymer processing
structure–processing–property relationships
theoretical and computational strategies for polymer design and processing
circular economy

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 2904 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Thermal Deformation of PA66/Carbon Powder Composite Made with Fused Deposition Modeling

by Fei Li, Jingyu Sun, Hualong Xie, Kun Yang and Xiaofei Zhao

Materials 2020, 13(3), 519; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma13030519 - 22 Jan 2020

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2534

Abstract

Polyamide 66 (PA66) is a material with high wear resistance, toughness, and heat resistance. However, low stiffness and thermal deformation during thermal processes define applications in many conditions. Carbon powder efficiently enhances stiffness and reduces thermal deformation, which makes up defects of plastic materials. However, forming a composite with fused deposition modeling (FDM) that accumulates material to a specified location by melting plastic filaments is limited, including fluidity and viscosity to form normally. In this paper, filaments of polyamide 66 (PA66) reinforced with carbon powder were produced. Digimat was used to analyze the composite material properties of different carbon contents and predict the proper carbon content. Then, the material properties were imported to ANSYS software to simulate the thermal deformation of the workpieces during processing. It was verified that adding carbon powder is helpful in decreasing thermal deformation. Comparing experiments and simulations, we found that 20% carbon mass fraction was best, and that thermal deformation was minimal at 240 °C nozzle temperature while hot bed temperature was 90 °C. The optimal ratio of extrusion speed to filling speed was 0.87, and the best aspect ratio was 0.25. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Polymer Design and Manufacturing)

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18 pages, 22470 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Recycled Glass Fiber Composites from Wind Turbine Waste for 3D Printing Feedstock: Effects of Fiber Content and Interface on Mechanical Performance

by Amirmohammad Rahimizadeh, Jordan Kalman, Rodolphe Henri, Kazem Fayazbakhsh and Larry Lessard

Materials 2019, 12(23), 3929; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma12233929 - 27 Nov 2019

Cited by 38 | Viewed by 9397

Abstract

This research validates the viability of a recycling and reusing process for end-of-life glass fiber reinforced wind turbine blades. Short glass fibers from scrap turbine blades are reclaimed and mixed with polylactic acid (PLA) through a double extrusion process to produce composite feedstock with recycled glass fibers for fused filament fabrication (FFF) 3D printing. Reinforced filaments with different fiber contents, as high as 25% by weight, are extruded and used to 3D print tensile specimens per ASTM D638-14. For 25 wt% reinforcement, the samples showed up to 74% increase in specific stiffness compared to pure PLA samples, while there was a reduction of 42% and 65% in specific tensile strength and failure strain, respectively. To capture the level of impregnation of the non-pyrolyzed recycled fibers and PLA, samples made from reinforced filaments with virgin and recycled fibers are fabricated and assessed in terms of mechanical properties and interface. For the composite specimens out of reinforced PLA with recycled glass fibers, it was found that the specific modulus and tensile strength are respectively 18% and 19% higher than those of samples reinforced with virgin glass fibers. The cause for this observation is mainly attributed to the fact that the surface of recycled fibers is partially covered with epoxy particles, a phenomenon that allows for favorable interactions between the molecules of PLA and epoxy, thus improving the interface bonding between the fibers and PLA. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Polymer Design and Manufacturing)

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19 pages, 5829 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Continuous Preparation and Properties of Silica/Rubber Composite Using Serial Modular Mixing

by Lin Zhu, Yiren Pan, Xiaolong Tian, Huaqiao Liu, Huiguang Bian and Chuansheng Wang

Materials 2019, 12(19), 3118; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma12193118 - 25 Sep 2019

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 3801

Abstract

In order to efficiently prepare high-performance silica/rubber composites for use in the tread of semi-steel radial tires, a serial modular continuous mixer was designed according to the principle of modular functionalization. The modular structure and serial process helped control the accuracy of the silanization reaction. Synchronous four-wing serrated rotors and reverse meshing reaction mixing twin-rotors utilized shear flow and elongation flow to improve the dispersion. In this paper, the mechanism of serial modular continuous mixing was analyzed, and the influence of the core reaction mixing zone (various mixing elements) on silica-filled compounds was investigated by cooling visualization experiments, including dispersion, and the silanization reaction degree. Meanwhile, a comparative experiment between serial mixing and two-stage mixing was conducted, which showed that the serial process comprehensively improved the dispersion, mechanical properties, and dynamic mechanical properties of silica/rubber vulcanizate. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Polymer Design and Manufacturing)

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Graphical abstract

9 pages, 668 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Solution Behavior near Envelopes of Characteristics for Certain Constitutive Equations Used in the Mechanics of Polymers

by Sergei Alexandrov, Lihui Lang, Elena Lyamina and Prashant P. Date

Materials 2019, 12(17), 2725; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma12172725 - 26 Aug 2019

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2179

Abstract

The present paper deals with plane strain deformation of incompressible polymers that obey quite a general pressure-dependent yield criterion. In general, the system of equations can be hyperbolic, parabolic, or elliptic. However, attention is concentrated on the hyperbolic regime and on the behavior of solutions near frictional interfaces, assuming that the regime of sliding occurs only if the friction surface coincides with an envelope of stress characteristics. The main reason for studying the behavior of solutions in the vicinity of envelopes of characteristics is that the solution cannot be extended beyond the envelope. This research is also motivated by available results in metal plasticity that the velocity field is singular near envelopes of characteristics (some space derivatives of velocity components approach infinity). In contrast to metal plasticity, it is shown that in the case of the material models adopted, all derivatives of velocity components are bounded but some derivatives of stress components approach infinity near the envelopes of stress characteristics. The exact asymptotic expansion of stress components is found. It is believed that this result is useful for developing numerical codes that should account for the singular behavior of the stress field. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Polymer Design and Manufacturing)

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