Hazard assessment of abraded thermoplastic composites reinforced with reduced graphene oxide.

Graphene-related materials (GRMs) are subject to intensive investigations and considerable progress has been made in recent years in terms of safety assessment. However, limited information is available concerning the hazard potential of GRM-containing products such as graphene-reinforced composites. In the present study, we conducted a comprehensive investigation of the potential biological effects of particles released through an abrasion process from reduced graphene oxide (rGO)-reinforced composites of polyamide 6 (PA6), a widely used engineered thermoplastic polymer, in comparison to as-produced rGO.

Compressive strength of delaminated aerospace composites.

An efficient analytical model is described which predicts the value of compressive strain below which buckle-driven propagation of delaminations in aerospace composites will not occur. An extension of this efficient strip model which accounts for propagation transverse to the direction of applied compression is derived. In order to provide validation for the strip model a number of laminates were artificially delaminated producing a range of thin anisotropic sub-laminates made up of 0°, ±45° and 90° plies that displayed varied buckling and delamination propagation phenomena.