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Multiscaling in Polymer Composite Materials

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2021) | Viewed by 8737

Special Issue Editors

Department of Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Engineering, Natiaonal University of Singapore, Singapore 117576, Singapore
Interests: biomaterials; polymer nanocomposites; biocomposites; nanofibers; polymer membranes
Department of Chemical Engineering, Materials and Environment, Sapienza University of Rome, 00184 Rome, Italy
Interests: fatigue and fracture behavior of materials; mechanical characterization; structural integrity of conventional and innovative materials
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Laboratory of Mechanics of Polymer Composite Materials, Institute of Strength Physics and Materials Science of Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, 634055 Tomsk, Russia
Interests: high performance polymers; multiscale design; polymer composites; wear resistance; interphase/interface; fatigue; polymer laminates; adhesion; computer aided design
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Despite a long, successful history of industrial application, as well as significant advances in developing methods for describing their structure and properties, polymer composite materials still represent complicated systems, and there is a lot that we do not know. Due to multilevel structure, as well as the multiscale mechanisms of damage accumulation and fracture, understanding and describing their deformation behavior is a tremendous problem. An adequate solution may only be found within a multiscale approach.

Currently, a significant number of monographs have been published, that are devoted to i) technological aspects of fabricating polymer composites, ii) methods on the examination of their structure and mechanical testing, iii) establishing fracture criteria, including data of non-destructive testing, iv) modeling their behavior under various schemes and loading conditions.

Paying tribute to all the research carried out already, in this topic issue, “Multiscaling in Polymer Composite Materials”, you are invited to present the current state of research on polymer composite materials from the perspective of their multilevel consideration. This implies both i) analysis of the structure and deformation processes at various scale levels, ii) direct control of structure formation, iii) analysis of damaging and assessment of the mechanical state, iv) development of approaches to modeling fracture processes in the hierarchy of scales.

Prof. Dr. Seeram Ramakrishna
Prof. Dr. Filippo Berto
Prof. Dr. Sergey Panin
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Materials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • multiscaling
  • polymer composites
  • wear
  • fatigue
  • additive manufacturing
  • interface
  • testing
  • simulation
  • bonding
  • nanocomposites

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

28 pages, 15736 KiB  
Article
UHMWPE-Based Glass-Fiber Composites Fabricated by FDM. Multiscaling Aspects of Design, Manufacturing and Performance
by Sergey V. Panin, Dmitry G. Buslovich, Yuri V. Dontsov, Svetlana A. Bochkareva, Lyudmila A. Kornienko and Filippo Berto
Materials 2021, 14(6), 1515; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14061515 - 19 Mar 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2404
Abstract
The aim of the paper was to improve the functional properties of composites based on ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) by loading with reinforcing fibers. It was achieved by designing the optimal composition for its subsequent use as a feedstock for 3D-printing of [...] Read more.
The aim of the paper was to improve the functional properties of composites based on ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) by loading with reinforcing fibers. It was achieved by designing the optimal composition for its subsequent use as a feedstock for 3D-printing of guides for roller and plate chains, conveyors, etc. As a result, it was experimentally determined that loading UHMWPE with 17% high density polyethylene grafted with VinylTriMethoxySilane (HDPE-g-VTMS) was able to bind 5% glass fillers of different aspect ratios, thereby determining the optimal mechanical and tribological properties of the composites. Further increasing the content of the glass fillers caused a deterioration in their tribological properties due to insufficient adhesion of the extrudable matrix due to the excessive filler loading. A multi-level approach was implemented to design the high-strength anti-friction ‘UHMWPE+17%HDPE-g-VTMS+12%PP’-based composites using computer-aided algorithms. This resulted in the determination of the main parameters that provided their predefined mechanical and tribological properties and enabled the assessment of the possible load-speed conditions for their operation in friction units. The uniform distribution of the fillers in the matrix, the pattern of the formed supermolecular structure and, as a consequence, the mechanical and tribological properties of the composites were achieved by optimizing the values of the main control parameters (the number of processing passes in the extruder and the aspect ratio of the glass fillers). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multiscaling in Polymer Composite Materials)
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25 pages, 1655 KiB  
Article
Effect of Water Ingress on the Mechanical and Chemical Properties of Polybutylene Terephthalate Reinforced with Glass Fibers
by Catarina S. P. Borges, Alireza Akhavan-Safar, Eduardo A. S. Marques, Ricardo J. C. Carbas, Christoph Ueffing, Philipp Weißgraeber and Lucas F. M. da Silva
Materials 2021, 14(5), 1261; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14051261 - 07 Mar 2021
Cited by 22 | Viewed by 3116
Abstract
Short fiber reinforced polymers are widely used in the construction of electronic housings, where they are often exposed to harsh environmental conditions. The main purpose of this work is the in-depth study and characterization of the water uptake behavior of PBT-GF30 (polybutylene terephthalate [...] Read more.
Short fiber reinforced polymers are widely used in the construction of electronic housings, where they are often exposed to harsh environmental conditions. The main purpose of this work is the in-depth study and characterization of the water uptake behavior of PBT-GF30 (polybutylene terephthalate with 30% of short glass fiber)as well as its consequent effect on the mechanical properties of the material. Further analysis was conducted to determine at which temperature range PBT-GF30 starts experiencing chemical changes. The influence of testing procedures and conditions on the evaluation of these effects was analyzed, also drawing comparisons with previous studies. The water absorption behavior was studied through gravimetric tests at 35, 70, and 130 °C. Fiber-free PBT was also studied at 35 °C for comparison purposes. The effect of water and temperature on the mechanical properties was analyzed through bulk tensile tests. The material was tested for the three temperatures in the as-supplied state (without drying or aging). Afterwards, PBT-GF30 was tested at room temperature following water immersion at the three temperatures. Chemical changes in the material were also analyzed through Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). It was concluded that the water diffusion behavior is Fickian and that PBT absorbs more water than PBT-GF30 but at a slightly higher rate. However, temperature was found to have a more significant influence on the rate of water diffusion of PBT-GF30 than fiber content did. Temperature has a significant influence on the mechanical properties of the material. Humidity contributes to a slight drop in stiffness and strength, not showing a clear dependence on water uptake. This decrease in mechanical properties occurs due to the relaxation of the polymeric chain promoted by water ingress. Between 80 and 85 °C, after water immersion, the FTIR profile of the material changes, which suggests chemical changes in the PBT. The water absorption was simulated through heat transfer analogy with good results. From the developed numerical simulation, the minimum plate size to maintain the water ingress unidirectional was 30 mm, which was validated experimentally. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multiscaling in Polymer Composite Materials)
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22 pages, 9593 KiB  
Article
Effect of Various Type of Nanoparticles on Mechanical and Tribological Properties of Wear-Resistant PEEK + PTFE-Based Composites
by Sergey V. Panin, Duc A. Nguyen, Dmitry G. Buslovich, Vladislav O. Alexenko, Aleksander V. Pervikov, Lyudmila A. Kornienko and Filippo Berto
Materials 2021, 14(5), 1113; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14051113 - 27 Feb 2021
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 2023
Abstract
The mechanical and tribological properties of polyetheretherketone (PEEK)- and PEEK + PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene)-based composites loaded with and four types of nanoparticles (carbonaceous, metallic, bimetal oxide, and ceramic) under metal- and ceramic-polymer tribological contact conditions were investigated. It was found that loading with the [...] Read more.
The mechanical and tribological properties of polyetheretherketone (PEEK)- and PEEK + PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene)-based composites loaded with and four types of nanoparticles (carbonaceous, metallic, bimetal oxide, and ceramic) under metal- and ceramic-polymer tribological contact conditions were investigated. It was found that loading with the nanofillers in a small content (0.3 wt.%) enabled improvement of the elastic modulus of the PEEK-based composites by 10–15%. In the metal–polymer tribological contact, wear resistance of all nanocomposites was increased by 1.5–2.3 times. In the ceramic-polymer tribological contact, loading PEEK with metal nanoparticles caused the intensification of oxidation processes, the microabrasive counterpart wear, and a multiple increase in the wear rate of the composites. The three component “PEEK/10PTFE/0.3 nanofillers” composites provided an increase in wear resistance, up to 22 times, for the metal–polymer tribological contact and up to 12 times for the ceramic-polymer one (with a slight decrease in the mechanical properties) compared to that of neat PEEK. In all cases, this was achieved by the polymer transfer film formation and adherence on the counterparts. The various effects of the four types of nanoparticles on wear resistance were determined by their ability to fix the PTFE-containing transfer film on the counterpart surfaces. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multiscaling in Polymer Composite Materials)
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