Effect of Glass Fiber Hybridization on the Behavior Under Impact of Woven Carbon Fiber/Epoxy Laminates

The low-velocity impact behavior was studied in hybrid laminates manufactured by RTM with woven carbon and glass (S2) fabrics. Specimens with different thicknesses and glass fiber content (from 0 to 21 vol.%) were tested with impact energies in the range 30–245 J and the resulting deformation and fracture micromechanisms were studied using X-ray microtomography. The results of these analyses, together with those of the impact tests (maximum load and energy absorbed), were used to elucidate the role played by glass fiber hybridization on the fracture micromechanisms and on the overall laminate performance under low-velocity impact

Interface characterization in fiber-reinforced polymer-matrix composites

A novel methodology is presented and applied to measure the shear interface strength of fiber-reinforced polymers. The strategy is based in fiber push-in tests carried out on the central fiber of highly-packed fiber clusters with hexagonal symmetry, and it is supported by a detailed finite element analysis of the push-in test to account for the influence of hygrothermal residual stresses, fiber constraint and fiber anisotropy on the interface strength. Examples of application are presented to determine the shear interface strength in carbon and glass fiber composites reinforced with either thermoset or thermoplastic matrices. In addition, the influence of the environment (either dry or wet conditions) on the interface strength in C/epoxy composites is demonstrated.This investigation was supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación of Spain through the Grant MAT2012-37552, by the Comunidad de Madrid through the program DIMMAT (P2013/MIT2775), and by the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007-2013 under Grant Agreement 213371 (MAAXIMUS, www.maaximus.eu). In addition, the support of Airbus through the project SIMSCREEN ("Simulation for Screening Properties of Materials") is gratefully acknowledged

S13RS SGR No. 13 (Sustainability Orientation)

A RESOLUTION To urge and request the Office of Orientation to implement a sustainability program in all new student orientation session

The effect of the crisis on material deprivation in Italy and Spain

The focus of this paper is on the analysis of the impact of the crisis on material deprivation in two South European countries: Italy and Spain. The countries chosen have been deeply hit by the economic downturn and the use of the available comparable microdata allows us to detect the most vulnerable collective in the crisis taking into account also gender differences. The microdata used are the Italian and Spanish Income and Living Conditions Surveys of 2007 and 2010. Our results confirm the growth of deprivation as a consequence of the economic crisis in both countries and show that women are more likely to face income poverty and deprivation

Measuring the impact of the crisis on unemployment and household income

The current economic crisis has significantly increased unemployment rates and its effect is more persistent than expected, leading to an increase in long term unemployment and inactivity. Among other effects, the experience of unemployment results in a decrease in purchasing power, a loss of human capital, a discouraging effect among the long-term unemployed and the inactive as well as wide-ranging social costs as a worsening of inequality and well-being indicators. The assessment of the costs of unemployment on individuals and households' living conditions is usually carried out using microeconomic data from household surveys that are however issued with delay. Hence, they do not allow for a prompt analysis of the impact of the economic cycle to guide policy makers. In the case of the European Income and Living Conditions Surveys (EU SILC) the data are available with a delay of at least one year and, additionally, we have to consider that the income data refers to the year before the survey (for instance, in the Italian case the last available microdata at the moment of writing this paper are from 2011). To solve this problem we carried out a microsimulation analysis using the European Statistics on Income and Living Conditions Surveys together with the Labour Force Survey (LFS) microdata. Therefore, we propose a methodology based on different sources of microdata that could provide the analysts and the policy makers with a more immediate analysis of the costs of unemployment. This would prove to be extremely useful in a time of high unemployment and budgetary restrictions as the one in which we find ourselves in today. The microsimulation technique developed in this paper is based on the imputation of transition probabilities and simulated income. Unlike other techniques such as the re- weighting approach, the microsimulation technique adopted here allows us to take into account the changes occurred in the composition of the unemployed. To test the validity of the proposed methodology we apply it to Italy, a European country severely hit by the crisis. We focus on the Italian economy since this country is a member of the Eurozone and its labour market has particular structural characteristics: a high degree of inflexibility in wage determination, rigidity in hiring and firing practices, very low achievement in terms of female labour-force participation and a strong duality between fixed-term and open-ended contracts. The country has an employment protection system corresponding to the Mediterranean model that is characterized by a rather low coverage of unemployment benefit moreover, the wide use of temporary contracts in hiring young workers to avoid the much higher dismissal costs of permanent contracts coupled with the deep recession, have resulted in a youth unemployment rate standing well over the European average. In Section 2 we introduce the methodology that will be used to microsimulate the effect of the crisis on income distribution and income poverty in Section 3 by relying on European surveys. In order to check its validity, we do progress with its application to Italy in Section 4. The final section will offer conclusions