Digital Commons Network^™

Mechanical Behavior Of Hybrid Glass/Steel Reinforced Epoxy Composites, Amanda Mcbride

Master's Theses

Our nation’s deteriorating infrastructure demonstrates the need for a new class of multifunctional materials that alleviate the shortcomings of traditional materials. Conventional fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites have served as an alternative material in civil structures for the past three decades. They offer high strength and stiffness, low weight, and corrosion resistance, however, lack ductility and the ability to absorb energy before failure.

To address these shortcomings for structural composites, research was conducted to investigate the capabilities of fiber hybridization. Varying volume fractions of thin steel reinforcement were introduced into typical glass fiber reinforced epoxy composites. This hybrid FRP may address …

Finite Element Modeling Of Delamination Damage In Carbon Fiber Laminates Subject To Low-Velocity Impact And Comparison With Experimental Impact Tests Using Nondestructive Vibrothermography Evaluation, George Rodriguez Iv

Master's Theses

Carbon fiber reinforced composites are utilized in many design applications where high strength, low weight, and/or high stiffness are required. While composite materials can provide high strength and stiffness-to-weight ratios, they are also more complicated to analyze due to their inhomogeneous nature. One important failure mode of composite structures is delamination. This failure mode is common when composite laminates are subject to impact loading.

Various finite element methods for analyzing delamination exist. In this research, a modeling strategy based on contact tiebreak definitions in LS-DYNA^®was used. A finite element model of a low-velocity impact event was created to …

Effect Of Low Velocity Impact On The Vibrational Behavior Of A Composite Wing, Richard M. De Luna

Master's Theses

Impact strength is one of the most important structural properties for a designer to consider, but it is often the most difficult to quantify or measure. A major concern for composite structures in the field is the effect of foreign objects striking composites because the damage is often undetectable by visual inspection. The objective for this study was to determine the effectiveness of using dynamic testing to identify the existence of damage in a small scale composite wing design. Four different impact locations were tested with three specimens per location for a total of 12 wings manufactured. The different impact …