Development of Insulation Sheet Materials and Their Sound Characterization

Ni, Qing-Qing,Lu, Enjie,Kurahashi, Naoya,Kurashiki, Ken,Kimura, Teruo The Korean Society for Composite Materials 2008 Advanced composite materials Vol.17 No.1

The research and development in soundproof materials for preventing noise have attracted great attention due to their social impact. Noise insulation materials are especially important in the field of soundproofing. Since the insulation ability of most materials follows a mass rule, the heavy weight materials like concrete, lead and steel board are mainly used in the current noise insulation materials. To overcome some weak points in these materials, fiber reinforced composite materials with lightweight and other high performance characteristics are now being used. In this paper, innovative insulation sheet materials with carbon and/or glass fabrics and nano-silica hybrid PU resin are developed. The parameters related to sound performance, such as materials and fabric texture in base fabric, hybrid method of resin, size of silica particle and so on, are investigated. At the same time, the wave analysis code (PZFlex) is used to simulate some of experimental results. As a result, it is found that both bundle density and fabric texture in the base fabrics play an important role on the soundproof performance. Compared with the effect of base fabrics, the transmission loss in sheet materials increased more than 10 dB even though the thickness of the sample was only about 0.7 mm. The results show different values of transmission loss factor when the diameters of silica particles in coating materials changed. It is understood that the effect of the soundproof performance is different due to the change of hybrid method and the size of silica particles. Fillers occupying appropriate positions and with optimum size may achieve a better effect in soundproof performance. The effect of the particle content on the soundproof performance is confirmed, but there is a limit for the addition of the fillers. The optimization of silica content for the improvement of the sound insulation effect is important. It is observed that nano-particles will have better effect on the high soundproof performance. The sound insulation effect has been understood through a comparison between the experimental and analytical results. It is confirmed that the time-domain finite wave analysis (PZFlex) is effective for the prediction and design of soundproof performance materials. Both experimental and analytical results indicate that the developed materials have advantages in lightweight, flexibility, other mechanical properties and excellent soundproof performance.

Application of silk composite to decorative laminate

Kimura, Teruo,Aoki, Shinpei The Korean Society for Composite Materials 2007 Advanced composite materials Vol.16 No.4

Recently, natural fiber reinforced composite is attracting attention and considered as an environmentally friendly material. Usually cellulosic fibers are used to reinforce the composites, but some protein fibers such as silk and wool serve the same purpose. In this paper, we proposed a method of producing artistic composite from artistic fabric by using silk fiber reinforced biodegradable plastic, which is designated as 'silk composite', for reinforcement. In order to expand applications of the silk composite, we performed the compression molding of decorative laminates with woody material, which was selected as a core material, and examined the properties of molded decorative laminates with various content of the silk composite. Since plywood and medium-density fiberboard (MDF) are widely used for decorative laminates, we selected them as core materials. As a result, flexible decorative laminates with high flexural strength were obtained by compounding the silk composite with wood materials.

Electrical properties of ABS resin reinforced with recycled CFRP

Nishikawa, Takashi,Ogi, Keiji,Tanaka, Toshiro,Okano, Yasutaka,Taketa, Ichiro The Korean Society for Composite Materials 2007 Advanced composite materials Vol.16 No.1

Composite materials consisting of crushed carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) pieces and acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) resin were prepared by an injection mold method to solve the problem of recycling of CFRP. The electrical properties, such as electrical resistivity, alternating current impedance and electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding effect, were measured for the composites. The electrical resistivity of the composites showed a percolation type of conduction behavior and no difference between parallel and perpendicular to the injection direction was observed for CFRP content higher than the critical value. Measurement of alternating current impedance revealed that the conduction mechanism is attributed to the direct conductive paths generated by distributed carbon fibers; however, strong frequency dependence of the impedance was observed for the CFRP content near the critical one. The frequency dependence of the impedance is caused by the inter-fiber connection and can be expressed as a simple equivalent circuit. The absorption component of shielding effect (SE) was smaller than the expected value estimated from its resistivity. The decline of SE is thought to be caused by the decrease in effective thickness due to fiber orientation.

Experimental Assessment of Mechanical Properties of Geo-grid Reinforced Material and Long-Term Performance of GT/HDPE Composite

Seo, Jung-Min,Min, Kyung-Ho,Hwang, Beong-Bok,Lee, In-Chul,Ruchiranga, Jayasekara Vishara,Jeon, Han-Yong,Jang, Dong-Hwan,Lim, Joong-Yeon The Korean Society for Composite Materials 2008 Advanced composite materials Vol.17 No.3

This paper is concerned with the long-term performance of geo-textile (GT) composites in terms of creep deformation and frictional properties. Composites of PVA GT and HDPE GM were made to investigate the advanced properties of long-term performance related to waste landfill applications. The same experiments were also performed for typical polypropylene and polyester GT and compared to PVA GT/HDPE GM composites. We also develop high performance GT composites with GM by using PVA GT, which is capable of improving the frictional properties and thus enhances long-term performance of GT composites. Experimental study reveals that the friction coefficient of GT composites is relatively large compared with those of polyester and polypropylene non-woven GT as long as the friction media has similar size to the particles of domestic standard earth. In addition, the geo-composites bonded with geo-grid by a chemical process were investigated experimentally in terms of strain evaluation and creep response values. Geo-grid plays an important role as a reinforcing material. Three kinds of geo-grid were prepared as strong yarn polyester and they were woven type, non-woven type, and wrap knitted type. The sample geo-grids were then coated with PVC. The rib tensile strength tests were conducted to evaluate geo-grid products in terms of tensile strength with regard to single rib. The test was performed according to GRI-GGI. It was concluded again from the experiments that the tensile and creep strains of the geo-grid showed such stable values that the geo-grid prepared in this study could protect geo-textile partially in practical structures.

Mechanical Properties of MWNT-Loaded Plain-Weave Glass/Epoxy Composites

Kim, Myung-Sub,Lee, Sang-Eui,Lee, Won-Jun,Kim, Chun-Gon The Korean Society for Composite Materials 2009 Advanced composite materials Vol.18 No.3

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have shown great potential for the reinforcement of polymers or fiber-reinforced composites. In this study, mechanical properties of multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWNT)-filled plain-weave glass/epoxy composites intended for use in radar absorbing structures were evaluated with regard to filler loading, microstructure, and fiber volume fraction. The plain-weave composites containing MWNTs exhibited improved matrix-dominant and interlaminar fracture-related properties, that is, compressive and interlaminar shear strength. This is attributed to strengthening of the matrix rich region and the interface between glass yarns by the MWNTs. However, tensile properties were only slightly affected by the addition of MWNTs, as they are fiber-dominant properties.

A Study on Thermally Bonded Geotextile Separator and Properties of Waste Landfill Application of PVA Geotextile/HDPE Geomembrane Composites

Min, Kyung-Ho,Seo, Jung-Min,Hwang, Beong-Bok,Lee, In-Chul,Ruchiranga, Jayasekara Vishara,Jeon, Han-Yong,Jang, Dong-Hwan,Lim, Joong-Yeon The Korean Society for Composite Materials 2008 Advanced composite materials Vol.17 No.3

This paper is concerned with geotextiles bonded chemically with geogrid to form a geocomposite. Geotextiles, thermally bonded and non-woven, play an important role as a separator. Also, this study investigates the resistance to the application environment of geotextile composites. Here, numerous tests have been performed and it was revealed from experimental results that thermally bonded geotextile in geosynthetic composites showed superior characteristics to that manufactured from needle punched non-woven method in terms of tensile strength, tensile strain and high separation performance. It was noted from experiments that the geotextile prepared for separation purpose and manufactured in a thermal bonding method showed relatively low permittivity so that it could be used as a smooth separator. In addition, PVA geotextile/HDPE geomembrane composites were designed and manufactured to investigate the waste landfill related properties. Numerous experiments have been performed and experimental results were summarized to evaluate practical applicability of PVA geotextile/HDPE geomembrane composites. Among the properties of proposed geomembrane composites, evaluation has been focused on the investigation of mechanical properties, AOS (apparent opening size), permittivity and ultraviolet stability.

Experimental Characterization of Dynamic Tensile Strength in Unidirectional Carbon/Epoxy Composites

Taniguchi, Norihiko,Nishiwaki, Tsuyoshi,Kawada, Hiroyuki The Korean Society for Composite Materials 2008 Advanced composite materials Vol.17 No.2

This study aims to characterize the dynamic tensile strength of unidirectional carbon/epoxy composites. Two different carbon/epoxy composite systems, the unidirectional T700S/2500 and TR50S/modified epoxy, are tested at the static condition and the strain rate of $100\;s^{-1}$. A high-strain-rate test was performed using a tension-type split Hopkinson bar technique with a specific fixture for specimen. The experimental results demonstrated that both tensile strength increase with strain rate, while the fracture behaviors are quite different. By the use of the rosette analysis and the strain transformation equations, the strain rate effects of material principal directions on tensile strength are investigated. It is experimentally found that the shear strain rate produces the more significant contribution to strain rate effect on dynamic tensile strength. An empirical failure criterion for characterizing the dynamic tensile strength was proposed based on the Hash-in's failure criterion. Although the proposed criterion is just the empirical formula, it is in better agreement with the experimental data and quite simple.

Effect of molding condition on tensile properties of hemp fiber reinforced composite

Takemura, K.,Minekage, Y. The Korean Society for Composite Materials 2007 Advanced composite materials Vol.16 No.4

In this study, the effect of molding condition on the tensile properties for plain woven hemp fiber reinforced green composite was examined. The tensile properties of the composite were compared with those of the plain woven jute fiber composite fabricated by the same process. Emulsion type biodegradable resin or polypropylene sheet was used as matrix. The composites were processed by the compression molding where the molding temperature and its heating time were changed from 160 to $190^{\circ}C$ and from 15 to 25 min, respectively. The following results were obtained from the experiment. The tensile property of hemp fiber reinforced polypropylene is improved in comparison with polypropylene bulk. The strength of composite is about 2.6 times that of the resin bulk specimen. Hemp fiber is more effective than jute fiber as reinforcement for green composite from the viewpoint of strength. The molding temperature and time are suitable below $180^{\circ}C$ and 20 min for hemp fiber reinforced green composite. Hemp fiber green composite has a tendency to decrease its tensile strength when fiber content is over 50 wt%.

Experimental and Numerical Simulation Studies of Low-Velocity Impact Responses on Sandwich Panels for a BIMODAL Tram

Lee, Jae-Youl,Shin, Kwang-Bok,Jeong, Jong-Cheol The Korean Society for Composite Materials 2009 Advanced composite materials Vol.18 No.1

This paper describes the results of experiments and numerical simulation studies on the impact and indentation damage created by low-velocity impact subjected onto honeycomb sandwich panels for application to the BIMODAL tram. The test panels were subjected to low-velocity impact loading using an instrumented testing machine at six energy levels. Contact force histories as a function of time were evaluated and compared. The extent of the damage and depth of the permanent indentation was measured quantitatively using a 3-dimensional scanner. An explicit finite element analysis based on LS-DYNA3D was focused on the introduction of a material damage model and numerical simulation of low-velocity impact responses on honeycomb sandwich panels. Extensive material testing was conducted to determine the input parameters for the metallic and composite face-sheet materials and the effective equivalent damage model for the orthotropic honeycomb core material. Good agreement was obtained between numerical and experimental results; in particular, the numerical simulation was able to predict impact damage area and the depth of indentation of honeycomb sandwich composite panels created by the impact loading.

Numerical Simulation of Mechanical Behavior of Composite Structures by Supercomputing Technology

Kim, Seung-Jo,Ji, Kuk-Hyun,Paik, Seung-Hoon The Korean Society for Composite Materials 2008 Advanced composite materials Vol.17 No.4

This paper will examine the possibilities of the virtual tests of composite structures by simulating mechanical behaviors by using supercomputing technologies, which have now become easily available and powerful but relatively inexpensive. We will describe mainly the applications of large-scale finite element analysis using the direct numerical simulation (DNS), which describes composite material properties considering individual constituent properties. DNS approach is based on the full microscopic concepts, which can provide detailed information about the local interaction between the constituents and micro-failure mechanisms by separate modeling of each constituent. Various composite materials such as metal matrix composites (MMCs), active fiber composites (AFCs), boron/epoxy cross-ply laminates and 3-D orthogonal woven composites are selected as verification examples of DNS. The effective elastic moduli and impact structural characteristics of the composites are determined using the DNS models. These DNS models can also give the global and local information about deformations and influences of high local in-plane and interlaminar stresses induced by transverse impact loading at a microscopic level inside the materials. Furthermore, the multi-scale models based on DNS concepts considering microscopic and macroscopic structures simultaneously are also developed and a numerical low-velocity impact simulation is performed using these multi-scale DNS models. Through these various applications of DNS models, it can be shown that the DNS approach can provide insights of various structural behaviors of composite structures.