Publications

While the interest in carbon fiber composites for automotive applications is rapidly increasing, their high cost and low failure strain or toughness continue to impede their widespread use. Both factors can be improved by hybridizing carbon fibers with a material that offers both ductility and reduced cost. In this work, the hybridization with highly oriented polypropylene tapes was investigated. Hybrid co-woven cloths of carbon ...

Biaxial multi-ply carbon fabrics (+45°/-45° and 0°/90°) were sheared up to 30°, 45° and 50° using a shearing frame. The carbon/epoxy composite plates were made using resin transfer moulding. Tensile properties were measured in two principal directions and compared with results computed with the classical laminate theory and meso-scale finite element analysis. Damage initiation in laminates due to tensile loading was investigated using acoustic ...

Conventional fiber-reinforced polymer composites are either stiff but suffer from sudden brittle failure, or they are compliant but possess high ductility. Seldom conventional fiber-reinforced composites are both stiff and ductile. Fiber-hybridization is a promising way to break through the stiffness-ductility dilemma. Fiber-hybrids normally demonstrate a unique combination of stiffness and ductility in combination with low density. Moreover, ...

Ever since composite materials where first introduced, they have been pushing the boundaries of high performance, lightweight designs in all branches of engineering. The demand for sustainable lightweight structures results in an augmented use of thermoplastic composites. Depending on the type of matrix and reinforcement, there are various manufacturing options for the fabrication of composite parts. Composite manufacturing processes are in ...

Non-dry flax fibre and polyester resin that has low sensitivity to moisture were used in the production of composites and the effects on flexural and moisture sorption properties of composites under wet-dry cycling were determined. Results showed that composites made of non-dry fibre have lower moisture sorption and degree of swelling and shrinking compared to composites made of dried fibre. Mean strength and modulus of composites made of ...

Carbon fiber reinforced epoxy composites consist of two parts: a matrix and a reinforcement. In this thesis the reinforcement is unidirectional carbon fiber and the matrix is a thermoset polymer called epoxy. These composites are usually not applied for tribological purposes (friction, wear), although they have inherent great potential. The nature of the carbon fiber composite wear is very important, but also the risk of debonding occurring in ...

Nothing is perfect, and composite materials are no exceptions. In the micro- and meso-structure of Fiber-Reinforced Composites (FRCs), there are imperfections that are created during their manufacturing. Being called "manufacturing defects", these imperfections can influence the mechanical performance of FRCs. They include fiber waviness and misalignment, broken fibers, initial fiber/matrix debondings, initial delaminations, incomplete matrix ...

Since most test methods, used for strain hardening cementitious composites, are adopted from polymer composites test standards, this paper investigates the applicability of a standard impact test (ISO 179-1:2000), which is used in the polymer composites world, on a specific textile reinforced cementitious composite using an inorganic phosphate cement (IPC) as a matrix material. The aim is to provide a test method to investigate the local impact ...

Composites fabricated by VARTM technology with the use of single-ply non-crimp 3D orthogonal woven preforms 3WEAVE (R) find fast growing research interest and industrial applications. It is now well understood and appreciated that this type of advanced composites provides efficient delamination suppression, enhanced damage tolerance, and superior impact, ballistic and blast performance characteristics over 2D fabric laminates. At the same time, ...

The aim of this paper is to study and compare the mechanical behavior of woven basalt and woven glass epoxy composites at high strain rates, in order to assess the possibility of replacing glass fiber composites with basalt fiber composites for aircraft secondary structures, such as radomes, fairings, wing tips, etc. Both composites were produced using the same epoxy matrix, the same manufacturing technique, and with comparable densities, fiber ...