Morphology of polymeric powders in Laser Sintering (LS): from polyamide to new PEEK powders

In an attempt to expand the range of engineering polymers used for laser sintering, this paper examines the morphology, flowability and interparticle interactions of two commercially available Poly (ether ether) ketone (PEEK) powders, not yet optimised for the LS process, by comparison with the LS optimised Polyamide (PA) and Polyetherketone (PEK) powdered polymers. The effect of incorporating fillers and additives on the flow behaviour is also analysed. The Particle Size Distribution (PSD) results alone do not allow ranking the powder materials in relation to the flow behaviour. The particle morphology has a stronger influence on the flow characteristics for materials with similar PSDs. The work also provides additional characterisation parameters to be considered when analysing LS powders

The fabrication and mechanical properties of a novel 3-component auxetic structure for composites

Copyright © 2015 Elsevier. NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Composites Science and Technology. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Composites Science and Technology (2015), DOI: 10.1016/j.compscitech.2015.06.012Functional auxetic composite materials can be fabricated from conventional or from auxetic components. The helical auxetic yarn (HAY) is a very recently invented auxetic reinforcing component for composite materials. This paper investigates the Poisson’s ratio behaviour of a further development of the HAY, needed for many practical applications. The 3-component auxetic yarn is based on a stiff wrap fibre (the first component) helically wound around an elastomeric core fibre (the second component) coated by a sheath (the third component). The resultant structure can overcome problems such as slippage of the wrap and changes in wrapping angles previously encountered during the manufacture and utilisation of the two-component HAY. The mechanical performance of conventional and novel systems is investigated; with emphasis on the differences between the engineering and true Poisson’s ratio. The importance of the utilisation of a true tensile modulus and a true Poisson’s ratio is demonstrated. This is the first time reported in the literature that an experimental auxetic effect analysis of HAYs was carried out by comparing true and engineering Poisson’s ratio. We show that depending on the coating thickness of the third component, the 3-component auxetic system can demonstrate auxetic behaviour, and the coating thickness can be employed as a new design parameter to tailor both the Poisson’s ratio and modulus of this novel composite reinforcement for a wide range of applications.Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC

The manufacture and mechanical properties of a novel negative Poisson’s ratio 3-component composite

This paper was presented at the ICCM 20 Conference - 20th International Conference on Composite Materials in Copenhagen, 19-24 July 2015. Full conference proceedings are available via the link in this recordMaterials with a negative Poisson’s ratio known also as auxetic materials [1] exhibit unusual property of getting thicker when stretched and thinner when compressed. The helical auxetic yarn (HAY) is a recently invented auxetic reinforcing structure for composites [2]. A helical auxetic yarn (HAY) consists of two fibres: a low modulus elastomeric core and a high modulus wrap fibre in a double helix structure. When a tensile load is applied the core of the HAY becomes wider as the wrap straightens out, resulting in a lateral expansion of the core, and therefore a large negative Poisson’ ratio behaviour. The auxetic behaviour of the HAY can be tailored by altering fibre properties, the initial geometry and also the applied strain to comply with specific applications, such as composites [3, 4], blast mitigation, and filtration [5]. This paper introduces a further development to the current HAY by addition of a third component (a sheath). The presence of the sheath is expected to overcome problems such as slippage of the wrap and inconsistency in the initial wrap angle previously encountered during the manufacture of the HAY. The auxetic performance of conventional and novel systems is investigated and Poisson’s ratio data are presented.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC

Processability of PEEK, a New Polymer for High Temperature Laser Sintering (HT-LS)

Copyright © 2015 Elsevier. NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in European Polymer Journal. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in European Polymer Journal (2015), DOI: 10.1016/j.eurpolymj.2015.04.003Currently, the HT-LS sector is predominantly based around one commercial poly ether ketone (PEK) polymer. Although the combination of polymer and process works well, a lower melting temperature polymeric material, part of the same Poly Aryl Ether Ketone (PAEK) family would be preferable in certain applications. This study presents the optimisation and characterisation of Poly Ether Ether Ketone (PEEK), a polymer which is part of the PAEK family with a 30 ˚C lower melting temperature than PEK. The systematic characterisation of laser sintered samples of PEEK revealed a very good overall performance in comparison with the HP3 PEK material, with no change in storage modulus and only 25 % drop in tensile strength. The possibility of variable building configurations available within the HT-LS system, i.e. reduced, half and full chamber building modes, is examined in relation to the mechanical performances of the components. The effect of the post sintering time, an additional heating phase supplied to the powder bed at every layer, found only in the HT-LS system EOSINT P 800, is also examined

Control and modelling of capillary flow of epoxy resin in aligned carbon nanotube forests

This paper examines the mechanism of infiltration by capillary flow of epoxy resin into vertically-aligned carbon nanotube forests. The resin viscosity during curing was characterized by rheometry. Carbon nanotube forests were brought into contact with resin at a range of times during curing, therefore at a range of viscosities. The penetration of the resin into the forests was measured using electron microscopy, X-ray micro-computed tomography and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, the latter relying on a chromium-complex dye additive which acts as a marker for the presence of resin. Experimental results were compared to a simulation based on the Implicit Lucas–Washburn equation for capillary flow. It was found that prior to the resin gel point, the resin penetrates through the full height of the forest. Close to the gel point, the flow into the forest ceases, leaving unwetted regions of nanotubes. Understanding the relationship between resin flow in nanotube structures and the resin viscosity and curing has important application in the fabrication of nanocomposite materials. This “partial wetting” effect is a key requirement for a previously proposed method for the fabrication of carbon nanotube composites by additive manufacture (AM) which would provide strong interlayer reinforcement combined with the versatility of AM.Airbus Corp. Ltd. (Airbus Group)University of Exete

Fabrication of Three Dimensional Layered Vertically Aligned Carbon Nanotube Structures and their Potential Applications

This paper proposes a new technique for fabrication of vertically aligned carbon nanotube (VACNT) structures, controlled in shape, height and functionality, through continuous successive growth of VACNT layers by chemical vapour deposition (CVD) combined with patterning strategies. This was achieved by vacuum deposition of additional catalyst material onto the original VACNT “forest” layer. A second forest layer is then observed to grow underneath the first by CVD. It is proposed that the new catalyst material diffuses through the porous nanotube forest to coat the growth substrate underneath. The enhanced height, coating, and vertical alignment of the nanotube forests were verified by electron microscope observation. By repeating this process, aligned nanotube bi-layers and tri-layers were grown, producing a “stack” of nanotube layers. By using a “shadow mask” patterning technique to screen areas of the original forest from catalyst deposition, the growth can be confined to specific areas of the substrate. Potentially, these multilayer nanotube structures would have diverse applications as long composite reinforcements, p–n junctions for electronic devices, or to allow the production of near net shape complex multilayer nanotube structures

A novel viscoelastic damping treatment for honeycomb sandwich structures

Journal ArticleCopyright © 2015 Elsevier. NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Composite Structures. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Composite Structures Vol. 119 (2015), DOI: 10.1016/j.compstruct.2014.09.005Constrained layer dampers (CLD) are in widespread use for passive vibration damping, in applications including aerospace structures which are often lightweight. The location and dimensions of CLD devices on structures has been the target of several optimisation studies using a variety of techniques such as genetic algorithms, cellular automata, and gradient techniques. The recently developed double shear lap-joint (DSLJ) damper is an alternative method for vibration damping, and can be placed internally within structures. The performance of the DSLJ damper is compared in a parametric study with that of CLD dampers on beam and plate structures under both cantilever and simply supported boundary conditions, using finite element analysis. The objective was to determine which damper and in which configuration produced the highest modal loss factor and amplitude reduction for least added mass, as would be important for lightweight applications. The DSLJ tend to be more mass efficient in terms of loss factor and amplitude reduction for cantilevered beam and plate structure, and are competitive with CLD dampers in simply supported beam and plate structures. The DSLJ works well because it has the potential to magnify global flexural deformation into shear deformation in the viscoelastic more effectively than traditional CLD dampers.MEET project (Material for Energy Efficiency in Transport) in the context of the INTERREG IV A France (Channel) – England European cross-border co-operation programme, which is co-financed by ERDF

On the effective strain tensor in heterogeneous materials

ArticleThis is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published version of record is available at https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1081286514521092This paper considers effective strain tensors within the context of linear elastic equilibrium theory. The elastic properties of structured materials are often averaged over subvolumes of various scales inside the material. For subvolumes smaller than a representative volume element, simple volume-averaging of the stress and strain may not preserve the elastic energy. We introduce an averaging process which preserves the energy for all boundary conditions. This averaging process emphasizes the parts of the material which carry the most stress. Here the effective strain is weighted by the local stress, and can be interpreted as an average strain over all paths taken by loads and forces through the volume. This alternative effective strain may be especially appropriate for materials with voids, such as foams and granular matter, as the averaging only involves the material itself. For uniform boundary conditions the weighted strain matches the volume-averaged strain. This paper investigates the properties of this weighted strain tensor. First, for each path taken by loads and forces through the volume we can measure a net length as well as a net extension due to the linear deformation. The weighted effective strain equals the ratio of average length to average extension, where the averaging is over all possible force paths. Thus this method provides a connection to load path analysis. Secondly, even when the average rotation within the subvolume is zero, there may be local fluctuations in the rotation field. These rotations can act like a mechanism, transferring elastic energy between boundaries or degrees of freedom. The effective strain defined here highlights this mechanism effect

A novel mechanism for generating auxetic behaviour in reticulated foams : missing rib foam model

Foams have previously been fabricated with a negative Poisson's ratio (termed auxetic foams). A novel model is proposed to explain this and to describe the strain-dependent Poisson's function behaviour of honeycomb and foam materials. The model is two-dimensional and is based upon the observation of broken cell ribs in foams processed via the compression and heating technique usually employed to convert conventional foams to auxetic behaviour. The model has two forms: the “intact” form is a network of ribs with biaxial symmetry, and the “auxetic” form is a similar network but with a proportion of cell ribs removed. The model output is compared with that of an existing two-dimensional model and experimental data, and is found to be superior in predicting the Poisson's function and marginally better at predicting the stress–strain behaviour of the experimental data than the existing model, using realistic values for geometric parameters.peer-reviewe