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Simplifying The Testing And Calculation Of Fracture Toughness Of Thermoplastic And Thermoset Matrix Composite Materials, James Shedden Jun 2013

Simplifying The Testing And Calculation Of Fracture Toughness Of Thermoplastic And Thermoset Matrix Composite Materials, James Shedden

Materials Engineering

Fracture toughness, or the ability of a material to resist fast fracture by crack propagation is an important property in the use of composite materials for structural designs. Other mechanical tests such as tensile, flexure, and compression are more established and practical than testing fracture toughness. Fracture toughness testing is less commonly used because it requires specific specimens and non-conventional test methods. In composite materials specifically, delamination of the plies of materials is tested for GIC and GIIC values to find the critical strain energy release rate of the two types of fracture modes. The common two tests …


Drape Forming Machine, Adam Johnson, Will Schlosser, Brian Miller Jun 2013

Drape Forming Machine, Adam Johnson, Will Schlosser, Brian Miller

Mechanical Engineering

The goal of this project was to build a prototype machine that formed multiple sheets of debulked pre-preg OOA carbon fiber into a 2-foot long trapezoidal shape. The machine was required to do this process semi-automatically.


Design Allowables Re-Evaluation Of Ten Composite Materials; Mechanical Testing And Porosity Examination Of M55j Fabric Coupons, Andrew Quayle May 2013

Design Allowables Re-Evaluation Of Ten Composite Materials; Mechanical Testing And Porosity Examination Of M55j Fabric Coupons, Andrew Quayle

Materials Engineering

The design allowables for ten carbon fiber/cyanate ester composites used by Space Systems/Loral for satellite structures were recalculated. This recalculation is done in order to incorporate a growing pool of test data. B-Bases for tensile, compressive, and short beam shear strength (SBS) were generated. Means were calculated for combined modulus (an average of tensile and compressive moduli). Compressive strength B-Bases were higher than current B-Bases for nine of the ten materials, ranging from 27% to 44%. Tensile strength increases ranged from 1% to 18%. SBS changes were mixed, ranging from -39% to +22%. K13D2U tape was the only material which …