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A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Advanced Composites".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 January 2024) | Viewed by 5049

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Dr. Adi Adumitroaie

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Department of Intelligent Technologies, Institute of Fundamental Technological Research, Polish Academy of Sciences, Adolfa Pawinskiego 5B, 02-106 Warsaw, Poland
Interests: mechanical engineering; aerospace engineering; computational mechanics; experimental mechanics; lightweight design; modeling and simulation; finite element analysis; composite materials; polymer matrix composites; ceramic matrix composites; damage mechanics; fracture mechanics; fatigue analysis; multiscale analysis; multiphysics analysis; 3D printing; additive manufacturing
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Dear Colleagues,

The Special Issue on “Advances in Polymer Matrix Composites for High-Performance Applications” aims to attract original contributions proposing novel, significant, impactful, and high-quality research and developments in the field of polymer matrix composite materials and structures, with a special focus on high-performance applications.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to advances in experimental, theoretical, and computational methods for the design, analysis, characterization, and modeling of material and structural properties, performances, and behavior; multiscale and multiphysics aspects related to structural and multifunctional composites; novel processing and manufacturing methods; novel high-performance applications.

Dr. Adi Adumitroaie
Guest Editor

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Keywords

polymer matrix composites
high-performance applications
experimental
computational
design
analysis
characterization

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 3869 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Calculation of Homogenized Mechanical Coefficients of Fiber-Reinforced Composite Using Finite Element Method

by Mostafa Katouzian, Sorin Vlase, Calin Itu and Maria Luminita Scutaru

Materials 2024, 17(6), 1334; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17061334 - 14 Mar 2024

Viewed by 452

Abstract

Determining the mechanical properties of a composite material represents an important stage in its design and is generally a complicated operation. These values are influenced by the topology and geometry of the resulting composite and the values of the elastic constants of the components. Due to the importance of this subject and the increasing use of composite materials, different calculation methods have been developed over the last fifty years. Some of the methods are theoretical, with results that are difficult to apply in practice due to difficulties related to numerical calculation. In the current paper, using theoretical results offered by the homogenization theory, values of engineering elastic constants are obtained. The finite element method (FEM) is used to determine the stress and strain field required in these calculations; this is an extremely powerful and verified calculation tool for the case of a material with any type of structure and geometry. In order to minimize errors, the paper proposes the method of least squares, a mathematical method that provides the best estimate for the set of values obtained by calculating FEM. It is useful to consider as many load cases as possible to obtain the best estimates. The elastic constants for a transversely isotropic material (composite reinforced with cylindrical fibers) are thus determined for a real case. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Polymer Matrix Composites for High Performance Applications)

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12 pages, 2505 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Natural Fiber Reinforced Shoe Midsoles with Balanced Stiffness/Damping Behavior

by Michael Cordin, Sandra Eberle, Thomas Bechtold, Christian Bitschnau, Kevin Lins, Fabien Duc, Raphaële Chapuis and Tung Pham

Materials 2024, 17(2), 401; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17020401 - 13 Jan 2024

Viewed by 722

Abstract

The comfort of walking depends heavily on the shoes used. Consequently, the midsole of shoes is designed in such a way that it can dampen force peaks during walking. This significantly increases the overall wellness during walking. Therefore, the midsole usually consists of rubber-like polymers, such as polyurethane and ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer. Furthermore, the manufacturing process of these polymers results in a foam-like structure. This further enhances the damping behavior of the material. Nevertheless, it would be desirable to find a cheap and sustainable method to enhance the damping behavior of the shoe midsole. The purpose of this work is to see if hemp fibers, which are part of the polymer matrix material, could improve the stiffness without losing the damping behavior. The mechanical properties of such prepared fiber-reinforced composites were characterized by quasi-static tensile testing and dynamic mechanical analysis. The mechanical properties were examined in relation to the fiber type, weight fraction, and type of polyurethane used. Furthermore, the investigation of the embedding of these fibers in the polymer matrix was conducted through the utilization of optical and electron microscopy. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Polymer Matrix Composites for High Performance Applications)

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16 pages, 3037 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Analytical Method for the Optimization of the Open-Hole and Filled-Hole Laminates at the Preliminary Design Stage

by Zubair Sajid, Saravanan Karuppanan, Kee Kok Eng and Syed Zulfiqar Hussain Shah

Materials 2023, 16(6), 2213; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16062213 - 09 Mar 2023

Viewed by 1145

Abstract

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in open-hole and filled-hole laminate failure analysis. The open and filled-hole laminate failure analysis is used in several important areas, especially in designing mechanically fastened composite joints. Various analytical, empirical, and numerical methods are available for the design of mechanically fastened composite joints. The large number of material and geometrical design variables at the preliminary design stage makes the empirical and numerical methods effortful, expensive, and time-consuming. Therefore, analytical methods are recommended over numerical and empirical methods at the preliminary design stage merely because of their simplification in calculations, making them computationally efficient. Taking this into consideration, current research presents an improvement to the analysis capabilities of the previously introduced analytical method, i.e., the coupled approach of Classical laminate theory (CLT) and Lekhnitskii solutions. These improvements include the development of failure envelops for the open-hole and filled-hole laminates, estimation of optimized filling material for attaining maximum load-bearing capacity of filled-hole laminates, and optimization of stacking sequence for maximum load-bearing capacity of open-hole and filled-hole laminates. From the failure envelop results, it was found that failure envelopes of filled-hole laminates are bigger than open-hole laminates. Furthermore, it was found that the stiffness of the filling material should be equal to the stiffness of the laminate to achieve maximum bearing strength of the filled-hole laminate. It was also demonstrated that the coupled approach of CLT and Lekhnitskii solutions may provide carpet plots that can be utilized to optimize the stacking sequence for open-hole and filled-hole laminates. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Polymer Matrix Composites for High Performance Applications)

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16 pages, 4457 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Influence of Magnetic Fields on the Electrical Conductivity of Membranes based on Cotton Fabric, Honey, and Microparticles of Carbonyl Iron and Silver

by Ioan Bica and Gabriela-Eugenia Iacobescu

Materials 2023, 16(5), 1995; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16051995 - 28 Feb 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1119

Abstract

In the present work, we report that the manufacturing of new environmentally friendly and low-cost materials with electrical conductivity can be roughly and finely tuned by an external magnetic field for technical and biomedical applications. With this aim in mind, we prepared three types of membranes based on cotton fabric impregnated with bee honey, carbonyl iron microparticles (CI), and silver microparticles (SmP). In order to study the influence of the metal particles and the magnetic field on the electrical conductivity of membranes, electrical devices were made. Using the “volt-amperometric” method, it was found that the electrical conductivity of the membranes is influenced by the mass ratio (

m_{CI}

m_{SmP}

) and by the B values of the magnetic flux density. It was observed that in the absence of an external magnetic field, adding microparticles of carbonyl iron mixed with silver microparticles in mass ratios (

m_{CI}

m_{SmP}

) of 1:0, 1:0.5, and 1:1 causes the electrical conductivity of the membranes based on cotton fabrics impregnated with honey to increase 2.05, 4.62, and 7.52 times, respectively, compared with that of the membrane based on cotton fabrics impregnated with honey alone. When applying a magnetic field, the electrical conductivity of the membranes with microparticles of carbonyl iron and silver increases with increasing magnetic flux density B. We conclude that the membranes are very good candidates for the fabrication of devices to be used in biomedical applications due to the possibility of remote, magnetically induced release of the bioactive compounds from honey and silver microparticles into the area of interest during medical treatment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Polymer Matrix Composites for High Performance Applications)

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13 pages, 4198 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Development of a Hydrophobic Carbon Sponge Nanocomposite for Oil Spill Cleanup

by Malika Medjahdi, Badra Mahida, Nouredine Benderdouche, Belaid Mechab, Benaouda Bestani, Laurence Reinert, Laurent Duclaux and Dominique Baillis

Materials 2022, 15(23), 8389; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma15238389 - 25 Nov 2022

Viewed by 1051

Abstract

Oil leaks (or spills) into the aquatic environment are considered a natural disaster and a severe environmental problem for the entire planet. Samples of polyurethane (PU) composites were prepared with high specific surface area carbon nanotubes (CNT) to investigate crude oil sorption. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), density measurements, and mechanical compression tests were used to characterize the polyurethane-carbon PU–CNT prepared samples. The spongy composites exhibited good mechanical behavior and a contact angle of up to 119°. The oleophilic character resulted in increased hydrophobicity, a homogeneous oil distribution inside the sponge, and a sorption capacity in a water/oil mixture of 41.82 g/g. Stress-strain curves of the prepared samples showed the good mechanical properties of the sponge, which maintained its stability after more than six sorption desorption cycles. The CNT–PU composites may prove very effective in solving oil pollution problems. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Polymer Matrix Composites for High Performance Applications)

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