Engineering Commons^™

The Effect Of Biocomposite Material In A Composite Structure Under Compression Loading, Benjamin Andrew Sweeney

Master's Theses

While composite structures exhibit exceptional strength and weight saving possibilities for engineering applications, sometimes their overall cost and/or material performance can limit their usage when compared to conventional structural materials. Meanwhile ‘biocomposites’, composite structures consisting of natural fibers (i.e. bamboo fibers), display higher cost efficiency and unique structural benefits such as ‘sustainability’. This analysis will determine if the integration of these two different types of composites are beneficial to the overall structure. Specifically, the structure will consist of a one internal bamboo veneer biocomposite ply; and two external carbon fiber weave composite plies surrounding the bamboo biocomposite. To acquire results …

Multiscale Modeling: Thermal Conductivity Of Graphene/Cycloaliphatic Epoxy Composites, Sorayot Chinkanjanarot

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The thermal property of epoxy as the binder in the Carbon Fiber (CF) composites, especially thermal conductivity is important to achieve the advance technology and to improve the performance of materials. Multiscale modeling including molecular dynamic (MD) modeling and micromechanical modeling is used to study the properties of neat Cycloaliphatic Epoxies (CE) and Graphene nanoplatelet (GNP)/CE with and without covalent functionalization.

The thermal properties (glass-transition temperature, thermal expansion coefficient, and thermal conductivity) and mechanical properties of CE system are investigated by MD modeling using OPLS-All Atom force field. A unique crosslinking technique is developed to achieve the cured CE models …