Open hole size effects on tensile properties of 3D braided composites

Owing to the excellent integrated structure, notch-insensitivity, delamination-free characteristics, 3D braided composites have a broad range of engineering applications. In this paper, the notch size effects on two types of 3D braided composites were experimentally examined. Style I incorporated 40% of longitudinal lay-in yarns. Style II was the pure braids. The Point Stress Criterion (PSC) was applied to predict the open-hole strength of 3D braided composites. It is found the 3D braided composites can keep higher proportion residual strength after involving the different circular hole sizes compared to plain woven laminates. The open-hole pure braided specimen shows better performance than that the braids with longitudinal yarns, the lay-in longitudinal yarns improve neither specimens’ un-notched strength, nor the modulus. The predicted open-hole strength were compared with experimental results. The traditional analytical method can predict the open-hole strength of 3D braided composite to some extent. Under uniaxial tensile stress, the failure behaviour of two types of 3D braided specimens are different. For un-notched specimen, clear cracks usually show up on the Style II specimen, while it is not true for Style I coupon. For notched specimen, the crack of both notched specimens will propagate along the notch and finally render the specimen to fail

Experimental set up for magnetomechanical measurements with a closed flux path sample

In this article, an experimental procedure is presented to handle magnetic measurements under uniaxial tensile stress reaching the plastic domain. The main advantage of the proposed procedure is that it does not require an additional magnetic core to close the magnetic flux path through the studied sample. The flux flows only in the sample, and no parasitic air gaps are introduced, thus avoiding the use of the H-coil to evaluate the magnetic field, which is often very sensitive and not easy to calibrate. A specimen of nonoriented FeSi (1.3%) sheet (M330-35A) is characterized under uniaxial tensile stress. To validate the proposed procedure, a comparison with the single sheet tester procedure is carried out. The results obtained by the two procedures are in good agreement. Moreover, to illustrate the possibilities offered by the proposed procedure, we confirm some results obtained in the literature. We show that the positive plastic strain leads to a significant degradation of magnetic behavior. An applied tensile stress on a virgin (unstrained) sample leads to a degradation of the magnetic behavior. However, on a pre-strained sample, an applied tensile stress results in reducing the deterioration caused by the plastic strain until a stress value called optimum is attained. Above this threshold, the magnetic behavior re-deteriorates progressively.

Uniaxial Tensile Stress-Strain Response on the 3D Angle Interlock Woven Fabric Composite

An experimental study have been performed to investigate the uniaxial tensile stress-strain response on the 3D angle interlock (3DAI) woven fabric composite. The tensile analysis were examined based on different woven fabric set-up parameter of draw-in plan ; pointed (DRW 1), broken (DRW 2), broken mirror (DRW 3), and straight (DRW 4). Meanwhile, the woven fabric composite were produced based on 22 and 25 pick.cm-1 of weft densities. The outcomes produced shown that woven composite sample with 25 pick.cm-1 on DRW 4 projected the highest stress response, 113 MPa. Extensive review indicated that DRW 1 and 4 gave better tensile stress-strain response than the other counterpart.

Determination of Direct Tensile Strength Values of Rock Materials by a New Test Method of Drilled Disc Tension

Use of drilled disc specimens was investigated with both numerical and experimental studies to determine direct tensile strengths of rock materials. A new loading apparatus with rods to insert into the drill holes of discs has been designed and manufactured to supply tension by using the compression test presses. In addition to the use of popular compressive presses for direct tension, elimination of the gluing in the standard direct tensile strength test method is a significant advantage to make possible both hard and soft rocks to be tested. The Brazilian test discs with the diameter of NX size and length to diameter ratio of 0.5 were used in tests. Different loading apparatus designs were analyzed and ideal angle of contact between rock and the loading rods was assessed to be 50° within various choices investigated in this study. The drilled discs were determined to fail due to the crack initiation under the condition of uniaxial tensile stress distribution at sidewalls of the hole. In addition to the drilled disc tension test, standard direct tensile strength tests were also carried out to take as reference and compare the results obtained from different methods. According to the results of both numerical and experimental studies, an equation was suggested to determine uniaxial tensile strengths of drilled disc specimens with 20 mm hole diameter and the contact angle of 50°.

The Influence of the Temperature Gradient near the Crack Surface on its Stability under Steady-State Thermomechanical Effects

The development of methods for predicting the reliability of structural elements based on brittle fracture criteria is a rather complex mathematical task. This is due to the fact that these criteria are usually obtained in the framework of the mathematical theory of cracks, the boundary problems of which allow a limited number of exact analytical solutions. To this we must add that the brittle fracture of materials with disc-shaped circular fractures has been studied in thermomechanics and in the kinetic theory of strength, from our point of view, is not enough and research in this area seems to be relevant to us. In this regard, in this work, within the framework of the linear theory of elasticity, two cases of external impact on a material containing a circular disk-shaped fracture are considered: mechanical, in the form of a uniaxial tensile stress, and temperature, in the form of a temperature gradient in the region of a material containing a circular disk-shaped crack destruction. From the extremum condition, brittle fracture criteria such as the Griffith criterion are obtained both for the case of only mechanical loading of the material with uniaxial tensile stress, and for the case of only temperature exposure of the material in the form of a local temperature gradient at the crack surface.

Ionic Liquid-Nanostructured Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)

Here, ionic liquids (ILs) based on imidazolium and ammonium cations were used as modifying agents for poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) by extrusion. The effects of the chemical nature of the cation and/or counter anion on the resulting properties of IL-modified PMMA blends were analyzed. It was found that the use of low amounts of ILs (2 wt.%) improved the thermal stability. A plasticizing effect of ILs is evidenced by a decrease in glass transition temperature Tg of the modified PMMA, allowing to get large strains at break (i.e., up to 280% or 400%) compared to neat PMMA. The deformation and fracture mechanisms of PMMA under uniaxial tensile stress (i.e., crazing) reveal that the presence of IL delayed the strain during the initiation step of crazing.