Architecturing materials at mesoscale: some current trends

This article overviews several areas of research into architectured materials which, in the opinion of the authors, are most topical and promising. The classes of materials considered are based on meso scale designs inspired by animate and inanimate Nature, but also on those born in the minds of scientists and engineers, without any inspiration from Nature. We present the principles governing the design of the emerging materials architectures, discuss their explored and anticipated properties, and provide an outlook on their future developments and applications

Piezoelectric Carbon Nanotube Tape for Use in Sensor Technology

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Heterostructured materials: superior properties from hetero-zone interaction

Heterostructured materials are an emerging class of materials with superior performances that are unattainable by their conventional homogeneous counterparts. They consist of heterogeneous zones with dramatic (>100%) variations in mechanical and/or physical properties. The interaction in these hetero-zones produces a synergistic effect where the integrated property exceeds the prediction by the rule-of-mixtures. The heterostructured materials field explores heterostructures to control defect distributions, long-range internal stresses, and nonlinear inter-zone interactions for unprecedented performances. This paper is aimed to provide perspectives on this novel field, describe the state-of-the-art of heterostructured materials, and identify and discuss key issues that deserve additional studies

On the statistical strength of nicalon fibers and its characterization

Nicalon fibers are one of the most attractive ceramic fibers for reinforcing high temperature structural composites. Experiment show that the diameter variation (from 8 to 22 {mu}m) in a tow of commercial Nicalon fibers has an effect on statistical strength distribution of Nicalon fibers. Therefore, an appropriate characterization of the statistical distribution of fiber strength, capable of accounting for the effect of diameter variation, is required. The two-parameter single-modal Weibull distribution is found inadequate for characterizing the strength of Nicalon fibers. This work demonstrates that a 3-parameter modified Weibull distribution can successfully characterize the strength of Nicalon fibers; this distribution yields a higher {beta} value, which indicates less scatter in fiber strength than with the 2-parameter single modal Weibull distribution. It more accurately treats the strength variation caused by diameter variation. It is also much easier to use than the 4-parameter bimodal. Moreover, it is seen to more accurately treat the strength variation caused by diameter variation than the single modal 2-parameter analysis