Recycled Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composites Incorporated in Mortar for Improved Mechanical Performance

Glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) recycled from retired wind turbines was implemented in mortar as a volumetric replacement of sand during the two phases of this study. In Phase I, the mechanically refined GFRP particle sizes were sieved for four size groups to find the optimum size. In Phase II, the select GFRP size group was incorporated at three different volumetric replacements of sand to identify the optimum replacement content. The mixtures were tested for compressive strength, flexural strength, toughness, and the potential for alkali-silicate reaction. Incorporation of GFRP in mortar proves promising in improving flexural strength and toughness in fiber-like shapes and 1–3% volumetric fractions

SEM-BASED ELECTRON TOMOGRAPHY OF TURFS COMPRISED OF LINEAL STRUCTURES

In recent years, electron tomography (reconstruction of three-dimensional {3D} information from a tilt series of bright field images obtained in the transmission electron microscope {TEM}) has attracted the attention of electron microscopists and materials researchers for its possible applications regarding the characterization of carbon nanotube (CNT) turfs. In this research, the electron tomography technique has been extended to imaging lineal structures and CNT turfs from secondary electron images in a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The technique is used to examine the structure of a fiber system before and after deformation. The expected application is to investigate the structure of CNT turfs, and to use the 3D CNT fiber models for computational characterizations. Test samples of low/high density steel wool and CNTs were tilted around a single axis by one-degree steps, and 3D images were reconstructed for the specimens by conventional electron tomography software. The technique is shown to be able to reasonably reconstruct the 3D features of the turfs, and to extract features such as lineal density, tortuosity, and the fiber path equation; features that define the mechanical properties of these materials

Comparative Study of Mechanical Properties of Aluminum Alloy A356 (Al-12Si) Fabricated by Directed Energy

Additive Manufacturing technology is rapidly gaining traction in many manufacturing applications due to its process parameters control and wide range of applications. There are other AM technologies accessible, however Direct energy deposition (DED) is a critical approach in metal matrix additive manufacturing. The significant two mechanical properties tensile strength and hardness of additively created Al-12Si Aluminum alloy by DED process and pressure die casted Al-12Si components are compared in this study. The strength and modulus of the DED and PDC manufactured components were identical if the load direction in the UTM machine was the same as the construction directions, however other mechanical parameters differed slightly. Mechanical qualities of fabricated products made from reused powders were also comparable to those made from unused powder.Mechanical Engineerin