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Full-Text Articles in Mechanical Engineering

Mechanical Characterization Of Automated Fiber Placement And Additive Manufacturing Hybrid Composites, Lucan Haviland Aug 2023

Mechanical Characterization Of Automated Fiber Placement And Additive Manufacturing Hybrid Composites, Lucan Haviland

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents the optimization of processing parameters based on the mechanical properties of Continuous Fiber-Reinforced Thermoplastic (CFRTP) Unidirectional (UD) consolidated tapes. The UD tapes were consolidated using an AFP head and a thermoforming press for comparison. The adhesive strength of hybrid parts consisting of CFRTP UD tape bonded to a 3D-printed substrate with the same matrix system were investigated. Large Area Additive Manufacturing (LAAM) was utilized for the 3D-printed parts. Different types of thermoplastic composite materials were explored, including Glass Fiber reinforced Polyethylene Terephthalate Glycol (GF/PETG), Carbon Fiber reinforced Polyethylene Terephthalate Glycol (CF/PETG), Carbon Fiber reinforced Polycarbonate (CF/PC), and …


Efficient Sintering Of Lunar Soil Using Concentrated Sunlight, Diprajit Biswas May 2023

Efficient Sintering Of Lunar Soil Using Concentrated Sunlight, Diprajit Biswas

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Construction material is one crucial need for long-term habitation on the moon. When concentrated for high heat flux, solar radiation can heat lunar soil or regolith until it sinters at temperatures above 900°C. The solid, sintered soil simulant can be used as construction material. This work explores the conditions leading to effective lunar soil sintering for both direct and indirect irradiated sintering. Lunar soil simulants were sintered using concentrated light from a xenon-arc lamp with varying heat flux intensity. During direct sintering of LHS-1, a sintering range of 860°C-1140°C corresponding to a peak heat flux of 105-120 kW/m2 was identified …


Mechanics And Mechanisms Of Fracture For An Eastern Spruce Subject To Transverse Loading Using Acoustic Emission, Parinaz Belalpour Dastjerdi May 2023

Mechanics And Mechanisms Of Fracture For An Eastern Spruce Subject To Transverse Loading Using Acoustic Emission, Parinaz Belalpour Dastjerdi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Due to its excellent structural qualities and accessibility, wood is among the most often utilized structural materials. Despite its ubiquity, wood poses numerous challenges. It is heterogeneous and anisotropic. It has a complex hierarchical ultrastructure, and the properties can have wide variation within a species, and indeed within an individual tree. This work aims to improve our understanding of the strength and fracture behavior of spruce-pine-fir (south) (SPFs), particularly in cross-grain direction. This study’s primary goal is to examine the relationship between crack propagation and cross grain morphology under the following loading configurations: compact tension, compression, and rolling shear. The …


Impact Resistance Of Fiber-Reinforced Composites Using Computational Simulations, Maitham Alabbad May 2020

Impact Resistance Of Fiber-Reinforced Composites Using Computational Simulations, Maitham Alabbad

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Composite materials are widely used in aerospace, automotive and wind power industries due to their high strength-to-weight and stiffness-to-weight ratios and their improved mechanical properties compared to metals. The damage resistance of composite materials due to low velocity impact depends on fiber breakage, matrix cracking and delamination between the interfaces. In this research, a numerical investigation of low velocity impact response of a multidirectional symmetric carbon-epoxy composite laminate is carried out and presented. Two different finite element models are developed for composite laminates made of non-crimp fabric to investigate their behavior under different levels of impact energy. In the first …


Damage Resistance And Tolerance Of 3d Woven Composites, Justin T. Mcdermott Dec 2019

Damage Resistance And Tolerance Of 3d Woven Composites, Justin T. Mcdermott

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Composite materials have been adopted into primary aircraft structures by virtue of their great strength-to-weight and stiffness-to-weight ratios, fatigue insensitivity, and corrosion resistance. These characteristics are leveraged by aircraft designers to deliver improved fuel effciency and reduced scheduled maintenance burdens for their customers. These benefits have been impressively realized in the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 XWB, with airframes utilizing about 50% composites by weight. Tempering these successes, however, are the inherent vulnerabilities of carbon-fiber reinforced composites. When compared to conventional metallic structure, composite laminates are more sensitive to stress concentrations at mechanical fastenings and damage due to low-velocity impact. …


Modeling And Simulation Of The Thermoforming Process In Thermoplastic-Matrix Composite Materials, Philip M. Bean Dec 2018

Modeling And Simulation Of The Thermoforming Process In Thermoplastic-Matrix Composite Materials, Philip M. Bean

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Thermoplastic-matrix composite materials have unique advantages over traditional thermosets including faster processing, improved fracture toughness, and recyclability. These and other benefits have caused increasing interest in the use of these materials in both aerospace and automotive industries. Due to the differences in behavior, these materials require a different type of manufacturing process to thermoset matrix composites. This manufacturing process generally involves using pre manufactured tape-layers. These layers, containing both thermoplastic-matrix and fiber-reinforcement, are aligned to the desired orientation, and stacked up into a “tailored blank” using an automated tape layup machine. They are then heated to the thermoplastic melting temperature …


Experimental Methods And Practices For The Study Of Toroidal Inflated, Braided Fabric Members, Daniel J. Whitney Dec 2016

Experimental Methods And Practices For The Study Of Toroidal Inflated, Braided Fabric Members, Daniel J. Whitney

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Inflatable structures have become a very important area of interest for many differing applications where lightweight packable structures are required. NASA is developing Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD) technology that takes advantage of stacked, inflated fabric tori to form a decelerating spacecraft nose cone. The tori consist of a bladder, braided fabric shell, and reinforcing in the form of integral cords or externally bonded straps. The focus of this thesis is on the development of methods for the structural testing of inflated fabric tori and developing an enhanced understanding of their behavior. This is essential for providing insight into the …


Microstructural Analysis Of Thermoelastic Response, Nonlinear Creep, And Pervasive Cracking In Heterogeneous Materials, Alden C. Cook Dec 2016

Microstructural Analysis Of Thermoelastic Response, Nonlinear Creep, And Pervasive Cracking In Heterogeneous Materials, Alden C. Cook

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is concerned with the development of robust numerical solution procedures for the generalized micromechanical analysis of linear and nonlinear constitutive behavior in heterogeneous materials. Although the methods developed are applicable in many engineering, geological, and materials science fields, three main areas are explored in this work. First, a numerical methodology is presented for the thermomechanical analysis of heterogeneous materials with a special focus on real polycrystalline microstructures obtained using electron backscatter diffraction techniques. Asymptotic expansion homogenization and finite element analysis are employed for micromechanical analysis of polycrystalline materials. Effective thermoelastic properties of polycrystalline materials are determined and compared …