Studies on Recycling Silane Controllable Recovered Carbon Fiber from Waste CFRP

During the production process of commercial carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRPs), a silane coupling agent is added to the carbon fiber at the sizing step as a binder to enhance the product’s physical properties. While improving strength, the silane coupling agent results in a silane residue on recovered carbon fibers (rCF) after recycling, which is a disadvantage when using recovered carbon fibers in the manufacture of new materials. In this study, the rCF is recovered from waste carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRPs) from the bicycle industry by a microwave pyrolysis method, applying a short reaction time and in an air atmosphere. Moreover, the rCF are investigated for their surface morphologies and the elements present on the surface. The silicon element content changes with pyrolysis temperature were 0.4, 0.9, and 0.2%, respectively, at 450, 550, and 650 °C. Additionally, at 950 °C, silicon content can be reduced to 0.1 ± 0.05%. The uniformity of microwave pyrolysis recycle treatment was compared with traditional furnace techniques used for bulk waste treatment by applying the same temperature regime. This work provides evidence that microwave pyrolysis can be used as an alternative method for the production of rCFs for reuse applications.

Reinforced concrete structures strengthened with CFRP (ACI x FIB) - Recommendations for bending design criteria

abstract: This work deals with the evaluation of the design criteria and security check (Ultimate Limit State - ULS) of the American (ACI-440.2R, 2017) and European (FIB Model Code, 2010) standards of reinforced concrete structures strengthened with Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers (CFRP), by the technique of Externally Bonded Reinforcement (EBR). It is intended to evaluate if, for a given database of 64 experimental tests of beams and slabs, the obtained results respect the safety conditions according to the mentioned standards, to increase the efficiency of this reinforcement technique and to lead to the establishment of regulatory design criteria in Brazil. Results show a conservative match among experimental and theoretical values calculated according to the two guidelines and it is concluded that a future regulation in Brazil on this subject should be based on the FIB Model Code.

Experimental assessment of different strengthening techniques for opening in reinforced concrete beams

The present experimental study includes testing thirteen reinforced concrete beams with openings at different locations to investigate the efficiency of strengthening such openings. Different strengthening techniques around the opening after and before casting include diagonal bars, upper and lower steel, and carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP), were examined. All beams were made from 30 MPa compressive strength and tested under four-point loading. The cross section of the beams is 400 mm depth x 160 mm width and beam length 2400 mm. The dimensions of the opening are 200 mm x 200 mm. The stiffness, deflection, failure load, and failure mode of the strengthened beams were discussed. Experimental results showed that the beams strengthened with upper and lower steel around opening at mid-span increase the load-carrying capacity by 16.59%. However, beams strengthened by CFRP sheets around the opening in the shear zone increase the load carrying capacity by 47.7% compared to opened beam.

Stainless-Steel Antenna on Conductive Substrate for an SHM Sensor System with High Power Demand

This paper presents the novel concept of structuring a planar coil antenna structured into the outermost stainless-steel layer of a fiber metal laminate (FML) and investigating its performance. Furthermore, the antenna is modified to sufficiently work on inhomogeneous conductive substrates such as carbon-fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRP) independent from their application-dependent layer configuration, since the influence on antenna performance was expected to be configuration-dependent. The effects of different stack-ups on antenna characteristics and strategies to cope with these influences are investigated. The purpose was to create a wireless self-sustained sensor node for an embedded structural health monitoring (SHM) system inside the monitored material itself. The requirements of such a system are investigated, and measurements on the amount of wireless power that can be harvested are conducted. Mechanical investigations are performed to identify the antenna shape that produces the least wound to the material, and electrical investigations are executed to prove the on-conductor optimization concept. Furthermore, a suitable process to fabricate such antennas is introduced. First measurements fulfilled the expectations: the measured antenna structure prototype could provide up to 11 mW to a sensor node inside the FML component.

Mode-I and mode-II interlaminar fracture properties of high modulus pitch-based carbon fiber reinforced polymers containing different nanostructures

The mode-I and mode-II interlaminar fracture properties of high modulus pitch-based carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRPs) (fiber: K13C; resin: EX-1515 cyanate ester) modified with 20–30 nm β-SiC nanoparticles or multiwalled-carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were investigated. Different volume fractions of both the β-SiC nanoparticles (1, 2, 5, and 10 vol%) and MWCNTs (1, 3, 5, and 7 vol%) were tested. The values of the mode-I and mode-II interlaminar fracture toughness of the CFRPs containing the lowest volume fractions of these nanostructures were larger compared with the unfilled composite but decreased with increasing the volume fraction of the inclusions. No differences in mechanical properties were observed among the different nanostructure types.

Theoretical and Experimental Investigation on Temperature Rise of CFRP with Long Pulse Laser Irradiation

Carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) are a widely used composite material applied in both commercial and industrial utilization. Based on the heat conduction theory, a theoretical model for the temperature rise of braided CFRP irradiated by long pulse laser is established in this work, and the time required for the maximum temperature rise of CFRP (with different thicknesses) to be acted by long pulse laser with different energy densities and pulse widths is simulated. At the same time, the temperature rise experiment and damage morphology of a long pulse laser with braided CFRP were carried out. The theoretical simulation results are in good agreement with the experimental results, which verifies the correctness of the theoretical model. The results of this paper will provide a theoretical basis for laser processing of CFRP.

Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers

The current demand for lightweight and high-performance structures leads to increasing applications of carbon fiber reinforced polymers, which is also made possible by novel production methods, automation with repeatable quality, the reduced cost of carbon fibers, out of autoclave processes such as resin transfer molding and resin infusion technologies, the re-use of waste fibers, development in preform technology, high-performance, fast-curing resins, etc [...]