Characterization and Simulation of the Interface between a Continuous and Discontinuous Carbon Fiber Reinforced Thermoplastic by Using the Climbing Drum Peel Test Considering Humidity.

The objective of this paper is to investigate the debonding behavior of the interface between continuously and discontinuously fiber reinforced thermoplastics using the climbing drum peel test. The study emphasizes on the importance of considering different climatic boundary conditions on the properties of thermoplastics. Specimens with varying moisture contents, from 0m.% up to above 6m.% are prepared and tested. It is observed that an increase in moisture content from 0m.% to 2m.% results in an increase of the fracture surface energy from 1.07·103J/m2 to 2.40·103J/m2 required to separate the two materials, but a further increase in moisture to 6.35m.% conversely results in a subsequent decrease of the required energy to 1.91·103J/m2. The study presents an explanatory model of increasing plasticization of the polymer due to increased polymer chain mobility, which results in more deformation energy being required to propagate the crack, which is corroborated in SEM investigations of the fracture surface. A further increase in humidity leads to polymer degradation due to hydrolysis, which explains the subsequent reduction of the fracture energy. The experimental set up is modeled numerically for the first time with cohesive surfaces, which could successfully reproduce the effective force-displacement curve in the experiment by varying the interface parameters in the model over an influence length, allowing the conclusion of a process induced variation in the interface properties over a specific consolidation length.

Deep convolutional generative adversarial network for generation of computed tomography images of discontinuously carbon fiber reinforced polymer microstructures.

Computed tomography images are of utmost importance when characterizing the heterogeneous and complex microstructure of discontinuously fiber reinforced polymers. However, the devices are expensive and the scans are time- and energy-intensive. Through recent advances in generative adversarial networks, the instantaneous generation of endless numbers of images that are representative of the input images and hold physical significance becomes possible. Hence, this work presents a deep convolutional generative adversarial network trained on approximately 30,000 input images from carbon fiber reinforced polyamide 6 computed tomography scans. The challenge lies in the low contrast between the two constituents caused by the close proximity of the density of polyamide 6 and carbon fibers as well as the small fiber diameter compared to the necessary resolution of the images. In addition, the stochastic, heterogeneous microstructure does not follow any logical or predictable rules exacerbating their generation. The quality of the images generated by the trained network of 256 pixel × 256 pixel was investigated through the Fréchet inception distance and nearest neighbor considerations based on Euclidean distance and structural similarity index measure. Additional visual qualitative assessment ensured the realistic depiction of the complex mixed single fiber and fiber bundle structure alongside flow-related physically feasible positioning of the fibers in the polymer. The authors foresee additionally huge potential in creating three-dimensional representative volume elements typically used in composites homogenization.

On the Creation and Optical Microstructure Characterisation of Additively Manufactured Foam Structures (AMF).

Plastic-based additive manufacturing processes are becoming increasingly popular in the production of structural parts. Based on the idea of lightweight design and the aim of extending the functionality of additive structures, the production of additively manufactured foam structures has emerged as a new field of application. The optical characterisation of these structures is of particular importance for process adjustments and the identification of (unwanted) changes in the foam structure. The degree of foaming and the fineness of a foam structure are of interest at this point. In this context, only the part of a structure dominated by foam pores is considered a foam structure. So far, there are no sophisticated methods for such an optical characterisation. Therefore, in this work, microscope images of manufactured as well as artificially created additively manufactured foam structures were evaluated. On these images, the features porosity, pore size, pore amount and a measure for the textural change were determined in order to obtain information about changes within an additively manufactured foam structure. It is shown that additive structures show changing pore shapes depending on the orientation of the cutting plane, although there are no changes in the foaming behaviour. Therefore, caution is required when identifying changes within the foam structure. It was also found that, owing to the additive process, the total porosity is already set in the slicing process and remains constant even if the degree of foaming of individual tracks is changed. Therefore, the degree of foaming cannot be determined on the basis of the total porosity, but it can be assessed on the basis of the formation of large networks of process-related pores.

Approaching Polycarbonate as an LFT-D Material: Processing and Mechanical Properties.

Long-fiber thermoplastic (LFT) materials compounded via the direct LFT (LFT-D) process are very versatile composites in which polymers and continuous reinforcement fiber can be combined in almost any way. Polycarbonate (PC) as an amorphous thermoplastic matrix system reinforced with glass fibers (GFs) is a promising addition regarding the current development needs, for example battery enclosures for electromobility. Two approaches to the processing and compression molding of PC GF LFT-D materials with various parameter combinations of screw speed and fiber rovings are presented. The resulting fiber lengths averaged around 0.5 mm for all settings. The tensile, bending, Charpy, and impact properties were characterized and discussed in detail. Special attention to the characteristic charge and flow area formed by compression molding of LFT-D materials, as well as sample orientation was given. The tensile modulus was 10 GPa, while the strength surpassed 125 MPa. The flexural modulus can reach up to 11 GPa, and the flexural strength reached up to 216 MPa. PC GF LFT-D is a viable addition to the LFT-D process, exhibiting good mechanical properties and stable processability.

Can Different Parameter Sets Lead to Equivalent Optima between Geometric Accuracy and Mechanical Properties in Arburg Plastic Freeforming?

Technological advances have led to the increased use of plastic-based additive manufacturing processes for the production of consumer goods and spare parts. For this reason, the need for the best possible mechanical properties while maintaining geometric accuracy is becoming increasingly important. One of these additive manufacturing processes is the Arburg Plastic Freeforming process, which differs from the widely used Fused Filament Fabrication process in the way that droplets are discharged along a track instead of continuous extruded tracks. As with all other plastic-based additive manufacturing processes, due to the round shape of the tracks, voids occur between the individual tracks during manufacturing, which effects mechanical properties. In contrast to previous work, which mainly focused on how the mechanical properties change with a change in a single printing parameter, this work focused more closely on the interaction of three relevant printing parameters considered as a parameter set. Their influence on the mechanical properties was investigated by tensile tests, the influence on the residual porosity by density measurements and the influence on the geometric accuracy by surface roughness measurements. It was shown that by considering the parameters as a parameter set, states of high density and therefore high mechanical properties while reaching minimal surface roughness can be achieved for significantly more combinations than previously assumed. However, for these states the residual porosity was slightly different. This difference was explained by a parameter-dependent deformation factor of the droplets, which influences the maximal possible degree of filling during manufacturing. For the optimization of arbitrary parameter sets, an analytical model was derived.

Development of an Injection Molding Process for Long Glass Fiber-Reinforced Phenolic Resins.

Glass fiber-reinforced phenolic resins are well suited to substitute aluminum die-cast materials. They meet the high thermomechanical and chemical demands that are typically found in combustion engine and electric drive train applications. An injection molding process development for further improving their mechanical properties by increasing the glass fiber length in the molded part was conducted. A novel screw mixing element was developed to improve the homogenization of the long fibers in the phenolic resin. The process operation with the mixing element is a balance between the desired mixing action, an undesired preliminary curing of the phenolic resin, and the reduction of the fiber length. The highest mixing energy input leads to a reduction of the initial fiber length L0 = 5000 µm to a weighted average fiber length of Lp = 571 µm in the molded part. This is an improvement over Lp = 285 µm for a short fiber-reinforced resin under comparable processing conditions. The mechanical characterization shows that for the long fiber-reinforced materials, the benefit of the increased homogeneity outweighs the disadvantages of the reduced fiber length. This is evident from the increase in tensile strength from σm = 21 MPa to σm = 57 MPa between the lowest and the highest mixing energy input parameter settings.

Comparison of Analytical Approaches Predicting the Compressive Strength of Fibre Reinforced Polymers.

Common analytical models to predict the unidirectional compressive strength of fibre reinforced polymers are analysed in terms of their accuracy. Several tests were performed to determine parameters for the models and the compressive strength of carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) and glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP). The analytical models are validated for composites with glass and carbon fibres by using the same epoxy matrix system in order to examine whether different fibre types are taken into account. The variation in fibre diameter is smaller for CFRP. The experimental results show that CFRP has about 50% higher compressive strength than GFRP. The models exhibit significantly different results. In general, the analytical models are more precise for CFRP. Only one fibre kinking model's prediction is in good agreement with the experimental results. This is in contrast to previous findings, where a combined modes model achieves the best prediction accuracy. However, in the original form, the combined modes model is not able to predict the compressive strength for GFRP and was adapted to address this issue. The fibre volume fraction is found to determine the dominating failure mechanisms under compression and thus has a high influence on the prediction accuracy of the various models.

Compression Fracture of CFRP Laminates Containing Stress Intensifications.

For brittle fracture behaviour of carbon fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP) under compression, several approaches exist, which describe different mechanisms during failure, especially at stress intensifications. The failure process is not only initiated by the buckling fibres, but a shear driven fibre compressive failure beneficiaries or initiates the formation of fibres into a kink-band. Starting from this kink-band further damage can be detected, which leads to the final failure. The subject of this work is an experimental investigation on the influence of ply thickness and stacking sequence in quasi-isotropic CFRP laminates containing stress intensifications under compression loading. Different effects that influence the compression failure and the role the stacking sequence has on damage development and the resulting compressive strength are identified and discussed. The influence of stress intensifications is investigated in detail at a hole in open hole compression (OHC) tests. A proposed interrupted test approach allows identifying the mechanisms of damage initiation and propagation from the free edge of the hole by causing a distinct damage state and examine it at a precise instant of time during fracture process. Compression after impact (CAI) tests are executed in order to compare the OHC results to a different type of stress intensifications. Unnotched compression tests are carried out for comparison as a reference. With this approach, a more detailed description of the failure mechanisms during the sudden compression failure of CFRP is achieved. By microscopic examination of single plies from various specimens, the different effects that influence the compression failure are identified. First damage of fibres occurs always in 0°-ply. Fibre shear failure leads to local microbuckling and the formation and growth of a kink-band as final failure mechanisms. The formation of a kink-band and finally steady state kinking is shifted to higher compressive strains with decreasing ply thickness. Final failure mode in laminates with stress intensification depends on ply thickness. In thick or inner plies, damage initiates as shear failure and fibre buckling into the drilled hole. The kink-band orientation angle is changing with increasing strain. In outer or thin plies shear failure of single fibres is observed as first damage and the kink-band orientation angle is constant until final failure. Decreasing ply thickness increases the unnotched compressive strength. When stress intensifications are present, the position of the 0°-layer is critical for stability under compression and is thus more important than the ply thickness. Central 0°-layers show best results for OHC and CAI strength due to higher bending stiffness and better supporting effect of the adjacent layers.

Influence of carbon nanoparticle modification on the mechanical and electrical properties of epoxy in small volumes.

The influence of nanoparticle morphology and filler content on the mechanical and electrical properties of carbon nanoparticle modified epoxy is investigated regarding small volumes. Three types of particles, representing spherical, tubular and layered morphologies are used. A clear size effect of increasing true failure strength with decreasing volume is found for neat and carbon black modified epoxy. Carbon nanotube (CNT) modified epoxy exhibits high potential for strength increase, but dispersion and purity are critical. In few layer graphene modified epoxy, particles are larger than statistically distributed defects and initiate cracks, counteracting any size effect. Different toughness increasing mechanisms on the nano- and micro-scale depending on particle morphology are discussed based on scanning electron microscopy images. Electrical percolation thresholds in the small volume fibres are significantly higher compared to bulk volume, with CNT being found to be the most suitable morphology to form electrical conductive paths. Good correlation between electrical resistance change and stress strain behaviour under tensile loads is observed. The results show the possibility to detect internal damage in small volumes by measuring electrical resistance and therefore indicate to the high potential for using CNT modified polymers in fibre reinforced plastics as a multifunctional, self-monitoring material with improved mechanical properties.

Hierarchical analysis of the degradation of fibre-reinforced polymers under the presence of void imperfections.

The subject of this work is the investigation of the influence of voids on the mechanical properties of fibre-reinforced polymers (FRPs) under compression loading. To specify the damage accumulation of FRPs in the presence of voids, the complex three-dimensional structure of the composite including voids was analysed and a reduced mechanical model composite was derived. The hierarchical analysis of the model composite on a micro-scale level implies the description of the stress and strain behaviour of the matrix using the photoelasticity technique and digital image correlation technology. These studies are presented along with an analytical examination of the stability of a single fibre. As a result of the experimental and analytical studies, the stiffness of the matrix and fibre as well as their bonding, the initial fibre orientation and the fibre diameter have the highest impact on the failure initiation. All these facts lead to a premature fibre-matrix debonding with ongoing loss of stability of the fibre and followed by kink-band formation. Additional studies on the meso-scale of transparent glass FRPs including a unique void showed that the experiments carried out on the model composites could be transferred to real composites. This article is part of the themed issue 'Multiscale modelling of the structural integrity of composite materials'.