Physical aging of polymers is a thermodynamic phenomenon that occurs in the glassy regime. Upon cooling, the thermal contraction is restricted by a lack of adequate free volume within the polymer structure. This leaves the polymer in a state of thermodynamic non-equilibrium which relieves itself over long timescales. Time temperature superposition is typically used to accelerate this aging process to achieve validation of properties over the service life of the material. The shift factors determine the degree to which the material time is accelerated in an isothermal environment at elevated temperature. This is typically achieved with dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA). This method works well for neat polymers but fiber reinforced polymer composites (FRPC) have significantly higher stiffnesses and typical DMTA testing is limited to under 20 N of force. Due to the large unit cell for a fabric composite and geometrical limitations in the thickness of a ply, a higher force method would be more useful. In this study, an electrodynamic test frame was used to determine the shift factors for a glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) composite which has a thermoset matrix. The goal is to determine whether the shift factors differ for different orientations of the composite. For an orthotropic material, directional dependent shift factors would increase material model complexity significantly.
Delaminations are of great concern to any fiber reinforced polymer composite (FRPC) structure. In order to develop the most efficient structure, designers may incorporate hybrid composites to either mitigate the weaknesses in one material or take advantage #of the strengths of another. When these hybrid structures are used at service temperatures outside of the cure temperature, residual stresses can develop at the dissimilar interfaces. These residual stresses impact the initial stress state at the crack tip of any flaw in the structure and govern whether microcracks, or other defects, grow into large scale delaminations. Recent experiments have shown that for certain hybrid layups which are used to determine the strain energy release rate, G, there may be significant temperature dependence on the apparent toughness. While Nairn and Yokozeki believe that this effect may solely be attributed to the release of stored strain energy in the specimen as the crack grows, others point to a change in the inherent mode mixity of the test, like in the classic interface crack between two elastic layers solution given by Suo and Hutchinson. When a crack is formed at the interface of two dissimilar materials, while the external loading, in the case of a double cantilever beam (DCB), is pure mode I, the stress field at the crack tip produces a mixed-mode failure. Perhaps a change in apparent toughness with temperature can be the result of an increase in mode mixity. This study serves to investigate whether the residual stress formed at the bimaterial interface produces a noticeable shift in the strain energy release rate-mode mixing curve.
This work is to characterize the mechanical performances of the selected composites with four different overlap lengths of 0.25 in, 0.5 in, 0,75 in and 1.0 in. The composite materials in this study were one carbon composite (AS4C/UF3662) and one glass (E-glass/UF3662) composite. They both had the same resin of UF 3362, but with different fibers of carbon AS4C and E-glass. The mechanical loading in this study was limited to the quasi-static loading of 2 mm/min, which was equivalent to 5x10( -4 ) strain rate. Digital cameras were set up to record images during the mechanical testing. The full-field deformation data obtained from Digital Image Correlation (DIC) and the side view of the specimens were used to understand the different failure modes of the composites. The maximum load and the ultimate strength with consideration of the location of the failure for the different overlap lengths were compared and plotted together to understand the effect of the overlap lengths on the mechanical performance of the overlapped composites. 4 6
This report describes the mechanical characterization of six types of woven composites that Sandia National Laboratories are interested in. These six composites have various combinations of two types of fibers (Carbon-IM7 and Glass-S2) and three types of resins (UF- 3362, TC275-1, TC350-1). In this work, two sets of experiments were conducted: quasi-static loading with displacement rate of 2 mm/min (1.3x10^( -3 ) in/s) and high rate loading with displacement of 5.08 m/s (200 in/s). Quasi-static experiments were performed at three loading orientations of 0deg, 45deg, 90deg for all the six composites to fully characterize their mechanical properties. The elastic properties Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio, as well as ultimate stress and strain were obtained from the quasi-static experiments. The high strain rate experiments were performed only on glass fiber composites along 0deg angle of loading. The high rate experiments were mainly to study how the strain rate affects the ultimate stress of the glass-fiber composites with different resins.
This work is to characterize the mechanical properties of the selected composites along both on- and off- fiber axes at the ambient loading condition (+25 o C), as well as at the cold (- 54 o C), and high temperatures (+71 o C). A series of tensile experiments were conducted at different material orientations of 0 o , 22.5 o, 45 o , 67.5 o , 90 o to measure the ultimate strength and strain f, f, and material engineering constants, including Young's modulus E, Poisson's ratio , The composite materials in this study were one carbon composite carbon (AS4C/UF3662) and one E-galss (E-glass/UF3662) composite. They both had the same resin of UF 3362, but with different fibers of carbon AS4C and E-glass. The mechanical loading in this study was limited to the quasi-static loading of 2 mm/min (1.3x10 ^(-3) in/s), which was equivalent to 5x10 (-4) strain rate. These experimental data of the mechanical properties of composites at different loading directions and temperatures were summarized and compared. These experimental results provided database for design engineers to optimize structures through ply angle modifications and for analysts to better predict the component performance.
Conventional Kolsky tension bar techniques were modified to characterize an iridium alloy in tension at elevated strain rates and temperatures. The specimen was heated to elevated temperatures with an induction coil heater before dynamic loading; whereas, a cooling system was applied to keep the bars at room temperature during heating. A preload system was developed to generate a small pretension load in the bar system during heating in order to compensate for the effect of thermal expansion generated in the high-temperature tensile specimen. A laser system was applied to directly measure the displacements at both ends of the tensile specimen in order to calculate the strain in the specimen. A pair of high-sensitivity semiconductor strain gages was used to measure the weak transmitted force due to the low flow stress in the thin specimen at elevated temperatures. The dynamic high-temperature tensile stress–strain curves of a DOP-26 iridium alloy were experimentally obtained at two different strain rates (~1000 and 3000 s−1) and temperatures (~750 and 1030 °C). The effects of strain rate and temperature on the tensile stress–strain response of the iridium alloy were determined. The iridium alloy exhibited high ductility in stress–strain response that strongly depended on strain-rate and temperature.
Iridium alloys have been utilized as structural materials for certain high-temperature applications, due to their superior strength and ductility at elevated temperatures. The mechanical properties, including failure response at high strain rates and elevated temperatures of the iridium alloys need to be characterized to better understand high-speed impacts at elevated temperatures. A DOP-26 iridium alloy has been dynamically characterized in compression at elevated temperatures with high-temperature Kolsky compression bar techniques. However, the dynamic high-temperature compression tests were not able to provide sufficient dynamic high-temperature failure information of the iridium alloy. In this study, we modified current room-temperature Kolsky tension bar techniques for obtaining dynamic tensile stress-strain curves of the DOP-26 iridium alloy at two different strain rates (~1000 and ~3000 s-1) and temperatures (~750°C and ~1030°C). The effects of strain rate and temperature on the tensile stress-strain response of the iridium alloy were determined. The DOP-26 iridium alloy exhibited high ductility in stress-strain response that strongly depended on both strain rate and temperature.
Kolsky compression bar experiments were conducted to characterize the shock mitigation response of a polymethylene diisocyanate (PMDI) based rigid polyurethane foam, abbreviated as PMDI foam in this study. The Kolsky bar experimental data was analyzed in the frequency domain with respect to impact energy dissipation and acceleration attenuation to perform a shock mitigation assessment on the foam material. The PMDI foam material exhibits excellent performance in both energy dissipation and accele-ration attenuation, particularly for the impact frequency content over 1.5 kHz. This frequency (1.5 kHz) was observed to be independent of specimen thickness and impact speed, which may re-present the characteristic shock mitigation frequency of the PMDI foam material under investigation. The shock mitigation characteristics of the PMDI foam material were insignificantly influenced by the specimen thickness. However, impact speed did have some effect.
Iridium alloys are known to have superior strength and ductility at elevated temperatures, making them useful as structural materials for certain high-temperature applications. However, experimental data on their high-strain -rate performance are needed for understanding high-speed impacts in severe environments. Kolsky bars (also called split Hopkinson bars) have been extensively employed for high-strain -rate characterization of materials at room temperature, but it has been challenging to adapt them for the measurement of dynamic properties at high temperatures. In this study, we analyzed the difficulties encountered in high-temperature Kolsky bar testing of thin iridium alloy specimens in compression. Appropriate modifications were then made to the current high-temperature Kolsky bar technique to obtain reliable compressive stress–strain response of an iridium alloy at high-strain rates (300–10 000 s-1) and temperatures (750 and 1030 °C). Finally, the compressive stress–strain response of the iridium alloy showed significant sensitivity to both strain rate and temperature.
Iridium alloys have superior strength and ductility at elevated temperatures, making them useful as structural materials for certain high-temperature applications. However, experimental data on their high-temperature high-strain-rate performance are needed for understanding high-speed impacts in severe elevated-temperature environments. Kolsky bars (also called split Hopkinson bars) have been extensively employed for high-strain-rate characterization of materials at room temperature, but it has been challenging to adapt them for the measurement of dynamic properties at high temperatures. Current high-temperature Kolsky compression bar techniques are not capable of obtaining satisfactory high-temperature high-strain-rate stress-strain response of thin iridium specimens investigated in this study. We analyzed the difficulties encountered in high-temperature Kolsky compression bar testing of thin iridium alloy specimens. Appropriate modifications were made to the current high-temperature Kolsky compression bar technique to obtain reliable compressive stress-strain response of an iridium alloy at high strain rates (300 – 10000 s-1) and temperatures (750°C and 1030°C). Uncertainties in such high-temperature high-strain-rate experiments on thin iridium specimens were also analyzed. The compressive stress-strain response of the iridium alloy showed significant sensitivity to strain rate and temperature.