Delamination of Novel Carbon Fibre-Based Non-Crimp Fabric-Reinforced Thermoplastic Composites in Mode I: Experimental and Fractographic Analysis.

Delamination, a form of composite failure, is a significant concern in laminated composites. The increasing use of out-of-autoclave manufacturing techniques for automotive applications, such as compression moulding and thermoforming, has led to increased interest in understanding the delamination resistance of carbon-fibre-reinforced thermoplastic (CFRTP) composites compared to traditional carbon-fibre-reinforced thermosetting (CFRTS) composites. This study evaluated the mode I (opening) interlaminar fracture toughness of two non-crimp fabric (NCF) biaxial (0/90°) carbon/thermoplastic composite systems: T700/polyamide 6.

Experimental and Numerical Analysis of Low-Velocity Impact of Carbon Fibre-Based Non-Crimp Fabric Reinforced Thermoplastic Composites.

There has been a lot of interest in understanding the low-velocity impact (LVI) response of thermoplastic composites. However, little research has focussed on studying the impact behaviour of non-crimp fabric (NCF)-based fibre reinforced thermoplastic composites. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the LVI responses of two types of non-crimp fabric (NCF) carbon fibre reinforced thermoplastic laminated composites that have been considered attractive in the automotive and aerospace industry: (i) T700/polyamide 6.

On the Dynamic Tensile Behaviour of Thermoplastic Composite Carbon/Polyamide 6.6 Using Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar.

A dynamic tensile experiment was performed on a rectangular specimen of a non-crimp fabric (NCF) thermoplastic composite T700 carbon/polyamide 6.6 specimens using a split Hopkinson pressure (Kolsky) bar (SHPB). The experiment successfully provided useful information on the strain-rate sensitivity of the NCF carbon/thermoplastic material system.

On the Compressive Response of Polymeric Cellular Materials.

This paper presents a series of compression tests performed on a variety of high performance lightweight cellular materials conventionally used in energy absorption applications. Compressive tests were performed over a range of strain rates with a universal testing machine and a single stage gas gun. Experimental results revealed a dependency of the mechanical properties on the polymeric precursor, density, infill topology and strain rates.

Understanding the Thickness Effect on the Tensile Strength Property of DyneemaHB26 Laminates.

In this study, an experimental and numerical investigation is presented on the effect of thickness and test rate within the pseudo static regime on the tensile properties of DyneemaHB26 laminates. A detailed experimental presentation on the tensile testing of different thickness is presented and highlights the commonly seen observation that the tensile strength of a laminate reduces as a function of the specimen thickness. To understand these experimental observations, a constitutive material model of the individual macro fibril is developed and applied to modelling the fibre and upscaling to the laminate.

Effects of the presence of the body in helmet oblique impacts.

The oblique impact methods of motorcycle helmet standards prescribe using an isolated headform. However, in accidents the presence of the body may influence impact responses of the head and helmet. In this study, the effects of the presence of the body, in helmet oblique impacts, are investigated.