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The paper addresses new variants of the high pressure resin transfer molding (HP-RTM) process namely high pressure injection RTM (HP-IRTM) and high pressure compression RTM (HP-CRTM) for manufacturing of carbon fiber reinforced composites with high fiber volume content. Both these processes utilize high-pressure RTM equipment for precise dosing and mixing of highly reactive epoxy resin and amine hardener with relatively high throughput rates. The paper addresses results of a study which investigated cavity pressure measurement for both the HP-RTM process variants using a specially designed highpressure RTM mold. The investigations indicate that the cavity pressure built up is a characteristic of the selected process variant. Further the relationship between the applied press force and the cavity pressure in HP-CRTM process was studied.

This paper investigates the mechanics of a gigahertz oscillator comprising a nanotube oscillating within the centre of a uniform concentric ring or bundle of nanotubes. The study is also extended to the oscillation of a fullerene inside a nanotube bundle. In particular, certain fullerene‐nanotube bundle oscillators are studied, namely C60‐carbon nanotube bundle, C60‐boron nitride nanotube bundle, B36N36‐carbon nanotube bundle and B36N36‐boron nitride nanotube bundle. Using the Lennard‐Jones potential and the continuum approach, we obtain a relation between the bundle radius and the radii of the nanotubes forming the bundle, as well as the optimum bundle size which gives rise to the maximum oscillatory frequency for both the fullerene and the nanotube bundle oscillators. While previous studies in this area have been undertaken through molecular dynamics simulations, this paper emphasizes the use of applied mathematical modelling techniques which provides considerable insight into the underlying mechanisms....

The significant drop of the storage modulus under uniaxial deformation (Payne effect) restrains the performance of the elastomer-based composites and the development of possible new applications. In this paper molecular-dynamics (MD) computer simulations using LAMMPS MD package have been performed to study the mechanical properties of a coarse-grained model of this family of nanocomposite materials. Our goal is to provide simulational insights into the viscoelastic properties of filled elastomers, and try to connect the macroscopic mechanics with composite microstructure, the strength of the polymer-filler interactions and the polymer mobility at different scales. To this end we simulate random copolymer films capped between two infinite solid (filler aggregate) walls. We systematically vary the strength of the polymer-substrate adhesion interactions, degree of polymer confinement (film thickness), polymer crosslinking density, and study their influence on the equilibrium and non-equilibrium structure, segmental dynamics, and the mechanical properties of the simulated systems. The glass-transition temperature increases once the mesh size became smaller than the chain radius of gyration; otherwise it remained invariant to mesh-size variations. This increase in the glass-transition temperature was accompanied by a monotonic slowing-down of segmental dynamics on all studied length scales. This observation is attributed to the correspondingly decreased width of the bulk density layer that was obtained in films whose thickness was larger than the end-to-end distance of the bulk polymer chains. To test this hypothesis additional simulations were performed in which the crystalline walls were replaced with amorphous or rough walls.

In this paper was demonstrated the effect of preparation condition under vacuum and microwave drying on the mechanical properties of porcelain ceramic foam. The study was based on five different polymeric foam templates with thickness ranging from 0.5 to 4 cm. The templates were impregnated in ceramic slurry with solid loading ranging from 35 to 55 wt. % under vacuum pressure 10−1 Torr and then sintered to 1250°C. Effects of polymeric foam template thickness and solid loading quantity were evaluated based on porosity, density and mechanical properties (compressive and flexural strengths) of the ceramic foam.

Surface texturing as well as boundary slip is an effective approach to increase the tribological performance, friction and load support of lubricated mechanical components. However, in a textured bearing with boundary slip, cavitation, which is generally neglected, is important, and it alters the flow behavior. Therefore, in this paper a novel analytical equation was proposed based on a modified Reynolds equation considering boundary slip and cavitation. The modified Reynolds equation was derived by following the general approach to deduce the Reynolds equation from the Navier-Stokes equation by assuming classical assumptions, except that boundary slip was present. A theoretical investigation was carried out to study the effect of boundary slip including cavitation on the pressure distribution of a pocket bearing. Different slip configurations (full slip, single slip and semi slip) were studied and compared to various pocket depths. The results indicated that the presence of boundary slip both on the lead...

This paper reports the influence of Mo and Ni on the tensile properties of the modified 13Cr martensitic stainless steels in tempered condition. Four steels with different content of Mo and Ni were prepared by induction melting followed by hot forging, quenching and tempering. The experimental results showed that the addition of about 1% and 3% Mo has a beneficial effect to increase both the tensile strength and the elongation of the steels. On the contrary, the addition of about 3% Ni into the martensitic stainless steel results in decreasing of both the tensile strength and the elongation. Among the alloys investigated the 13Cr3Mo type steel exhibited largest tensile strength of 1348 MPa and largest elongation of 12%. The observation on the tensile fractured surfaces by using scanning electron microscope supported these findings.

Additive production techniques have the advantage of manufacturing parts without needing a forming tool. One of the most used additive manufacturing processes is "Fused Deposition Modeling" (FDM) which allows the production of prototypes and end-use parts. Due to the manufacture layer by layer, also complex part geometries can be created in one working step. Furthermore, lightweight parts with specific inner core structures can be manufactured in order to achieve good weightrelated strength properties. In this paper the mechanical behavior of lightweight parts manufactured with the 3D production system Fortus 400mc from Stratasys and the material Polyetherimide (PEI) with the trade name Ultem*9085 is analyzed. The test specimens were built up with different inner structures and building directions. Therefore, test specimens with known lightweight core geometries (e.g. corrugated and honeycomb cores) were designed. A four-point bending test was conducted to analyze the strength properties as well as the weight-related strength properties. Additionally the influence of the structure width, the structure wall thickness and the top layer thickness was analyzed using a honeycomb structure.

In this paper the relationship between different composite morphologies and their mechanical properties is to be investigated. By manufacturing two different tape-based polypropylene composites in a compression moulding process, four varying degrees of compaction will be generated. The morphological structure is analyzed using confocal laser light microscopy and wet chemically etched specimen cross-sections. The etching process removes the amorphous phase in the polymer, making the macromolecular orientations and superstructures visible in the reinforcement tapes. The findings of the morphological analysis will be transferred to the results of mechanical investigations.

Distributive mixing plays an important role in polymer processing, especially for shear-sensitive materials. Many materials with very high filler contents or partly crosslinked materials show a rheological yield point, which makes mixing of such materials very difficult. Due to this fact it is very important to predict the mixing behavior before expensive mixing devices are manufactured or production stops due to insufficient product quality. Besides the mixing quality, both pressure drop and dissipative heating are important quality criteria for mixer geometries. The CARPOW equation presented in this paper is capable to describe the flow behavior of materials with a rheological yield point depending on the shear rate and temperature due to a combination of a Carreau equation and a power law. The implementation of this fluid model in the open source CFD toolbox Open-FOAM® and the combination with a particle tracking approach allow predicting the mixing behavior of such materials in distributive mixing dev...

Numerous researches have been done in the field of improving PP by adding nanofillers. Consistently good scientific results and positive industrial feedback were reached; however, the industrial interest is still low due to the high technological and financial risks and too less benefit. Our experiments, using the worldwide unique Polymer NanoComposite Injection Molding Compounder (PNC-IMC) which combines the two processing steps of compounding and injection molding, showed an impressive increase of both mechanical and thermal properties, but more or less in the same range than in other publications. Thus we tried to improve the materials by using elongational flow generating devices for better intercalation and exfoliation of nanofillers in the polymer melt. This paper will give an overview on our first investigations, carried out on both a high pressure capillary rheometer (HPCR) and the injection molding machine (IMM) focusing on the mechanical properties. The PNCs were produced at the PNC-IMC with the 3in1 process. After the treatment in the HPCR the material was crushed, plates were prepared using a hydraulic vacuum press and tensile bars were milled, respectively tensile bars were produced with the IMM. The Young's modulus was successfully slightly improved. Thus future research will focus on both, the mechanism of improvement and the implementation of several of these devices into the PNC-IMC.

The aim of this paper is the production of fiber reinforced LLDPE components by rotational molding. To this purpose, a process upgrade was developed, for the incorporation of pultruded tapes in the rotational molding cycle. Pultruded tapes, made of 50% by weight of glass fibers dispersed in a high density polyethylene(HDPE) matrix, were glued on the internal surface of a cubic mold, and rotational molding process was run using the same processing conditions used for conventional LLDPE processing. During processing, melting of LLDPE powders and of HDPE allowed to incorporate the tapes inside rotational molded LLDPE. The glass fiber reinforced prototypes were characterized in terms of mechanical properties. Plate bending tests were performed on the square faces extracted from the rotational molded product. The rotational molding products were also subjected to internal hydrostatic pressure tests up to 10 bar. In any case, no failure of the cubic samples was observed. In both cases, it was found that addition of a single pultruded strips, which corresponds to addition of about 0.6% by weight of glass fibers, involved an increase of the stiffness of the faces by about 25%.

One possibility of directly influencing the temperature profile in an extruder is by tempering the screw. This method is currently used in double-screw extrusion and in certain specialized applications in the field of single-screw extrusion. Significant possibilities of influencing the temperature have been shown, for example, while processing PVC on counterrotating double-screw extruders [1]. However, until now, it has not been possible to theoretically model this effect. This paper will thus introduce a mathematical model which describes the effect of internal screw tempering on the temperature gradient of the material in the extruder, allowing processes using tempered screws to be better designed and dimensioned.

An established method to produce thin walled bottles is Stretch Blow Molding (SBM). Polyethylene terephthalate (PET)-preforms are first heated above their glass transition temperature and subsequently transferred into a closed cavity. In a second step the hot preforms are axially elongated by a stretch rod and simultaneously inflated by pressurized air until a contact with the cavity wall is reached (blowing stage). After a cooling phase, the resulting bottle is ejected and further transferred to a filling station, where the desired liquid content is poured in (filling stage). Alternatively to this sequential procedure, a new process combines the blowing and filling phases. This is done by using the desired liquid content as a pressure medium to inflate the hot preforms. Hence, no separated filling station is required. Moreover the filling time is drastically reduced and the cooling is increased through the heat transfer between hot preform and cold liquid. In the following this process is denoted as liquid-bi-orientation (LBO). Despite of its obvious advantages, LBO is not yet used for industrial series production because SBM is well controlled and established. In this paper the LBO process is investigated by experiments and FE-simulations to obtain a deeper insight and to increase process knowledge. The experiments are conducted at a prototype machine. Hereby, a high speed camera in combination with a transparent cavity enables a recording of the preform deformation. Furthermore, FE-simulations with coupled fluid-structure interactions are conducted to predict the process. In comparison to the high speed video the capabilities of the process model are evaluated.

The influence of the pellet shape on the external coefficient of friction of polypropylene and on the mass flow rate of a single screw extruder is presented in this conference paper. The external coefficient of friction describes the friction between the polymeric bulk material and the screw or the barrel surface. In general, the external coefficient of friction should be rather low at the screw surface and high at the barrel surface in order to achieve a high mass flow rate and sufficient pressure build-up in the conveying zone of a single screw extruder. The measurements of the external coefficient of friction of polypropylene pellets, which are dependent on the shape and the dimensions of the pellets at processing conditions (pressure and velocity), are carried out using a previously developed tribometer. The tests were performed at room temperature on a polished hardened shaft made of screw steel. The effect of the shape of the polypropylene pellets on the mass flow rate is studied using a single screw extruder (Measuring extruder type Dr. Collin E20M). Two different temperature profiles were used for the extrusion experiments. When using the long cylindrical polypropylene pellets a higher extruder output can be achieved compared to the virgin material.

This paper investigates strategies to alter the nano-and-microstructures of carbon-based filler-reinforced polymer matrix composites (PMCs). The matrix materials being studied in this work include polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) and liquid crystal polymer (LCP). A set of experiments were performed to investigate various strategies (i) to fabricate a morphological structure within the polymer matrix; (ii) to develop a thermally and electrically conductive network of nano-scaled fillers; and (iii) to produce a thermally conductive but electrically insulative network of hybrid fillers of nano-and-micro scales. The PMCs' structure-to-property relationships, including electrical and thermal properties, were revealed. In particular, the composites' effective thermal conductivities could be increased by as much as 10-folded over the neat polymers. By structuring the embedded electrically conductive pathways in the PMCs, their electrical conductivities could be tailored to levels that ranged from those of electrical insulators to those of semi-conductors. These multifunctional carbon-based filler-reinforced PMCs are envisioned to be potential solutions of various engineering problems. For example, light-weight thermally conductive PMCs with tailored electrical conductivities can serve as a new family of materials for electronic packaging or heat management applications.

Appropriate modeling of heat transfer from the polymer material to the injection mold is essential to achieve accurate simulation results. The heat transfer is commonly modeled using convective heat transfer and applying heat transfer coefficients (HTC) to the polymer-mold-interface. The set HTC has an influence on the results for filling pressure, cooling performance and shrinkage, among others. The current paper, presents a new strategy to measure HTC in injection molding experiments using Newtons law of cooling. The heat flux is calculated out of demolding heat (measured by means of calorimetry), injection heat (measured by means of an IR-sensor), cooling time and part mass. Cavity surface area, average mold surface temperature and average part surface temperature lead to the HTC.

Glass and carbon fiber reinforcements in injection molded parts have been used for many decades in combination with thermoplastics. Where short- or long-fiber pellets are used, all areas of the part are nearly equally reinforced by fibers. With local continuous-fiber reinforcements it is possible to reduce fiber usage to the most highly loaded areas of the components along the lines of flux. This method, which draws on principles applied in nature, strengthens the parts with only a slight weight increase compared to non-reinforced parts. The combination of injection molding as a process for large-scale production with the high mechanical properties of continuous-fiber-reinforcements enables the production of high-strength components at reasonable costs. The paper presents the investigation of a process development with injection molded components in combination with wound fiber structures. Fundamental experiments with tensile loaded wound fiber structures regarding to their design influences are presented. On this basis a reinforcement structure for a demonstrator was developed and examined.

The thermal conductivity of various thermally conductive thermoplastics commercially available was determined experimentally and is compared with datasheet values. It was found that in most cases the thermal conductivities in-plane and through-plane deviate substantially from the manufacturers' values. The reasons as different measurement methods, part geometry and specimen preparation are discussed and investigated in detail in this paper. It was found that the through-plane thermal conductivity is strongly dependent on sample preparation, e.g. machining of the sample. In order to provide developers with reliable directional thermal conductivity data, the use of standardized methods is recommended.

Rice which is one of the largest agriculture crops produces around 22% of rice rusk during its milling process. This material is mainly used as fuel for energy generation, which results in an ash, which disposal represents an environmental issue. The rice husk ash (RHA) contains over than 70% of silica in an amorphous form and a lot of applications is being developed for it all over the world. The use of silica as a filler in the tire industry is growing since it contributes significantly to the reduction of fuel consumption of the automobiles, allowing at the same time better traction (safety). This paper presents an evaluation of the use of RHA as filler in rubber tread compounds prepared in lab scale and compares its performance with compounds prepared with commercial silica and carbon black, the fillers normally used in tire industry. Mechanical and rheological properties are evaluated, with emphasis for tan delta as an indicator of tread performance related with rolling resistance (fuel consumption) and wet grip/traction (safety).

This paper investigates the synthesis of Ag NCs in Si(100) substrate by implanting multiple energies and fluences of Ag ions and subsequent thermal annealing.

This paper is aimed to study the suitability of bio-polymers, including poly-lactic acid (PLLA) and Mater-Bi, for the production of hollow components by rotational molding. In order to reduce the brittleness of PLLA, the material was mixed with two different plasticizers, bis-ethyl-hexyl-phthalate (DEHP) and poly-ethylene-glycol (PEG). The materials were characterized in terms of sinterability. To this purpose, thermomechanical (TMA) analysis was performed at different heating rates, in order to identify the endset temperatures of densification and the onset temperatures of degradation. Results obtained indicated that the materials are characterized by a very fast sintering process, occurring just above the melting temperature, and an adequately high onset of degradation. The difference between the onset of degradation and the endset of sintering, defined as the processing window of the polymer, is sufficiently wide, indicating that the polymers can be efficiently processed by rotational molding. Therefore, a laboratory scale apparatus was used for the production of PLLA and Mater-Bi prototypes. The materials were processed using very similar conditions to those used for LLDPE. The production of void-free samples of uniform wall thickness was considered as an indication of the potentiality of the process for the production of biodegradable containers.

Surfaces of technical parts are getting more and more attention in terms of functionalization. By modification, additional functionality is given to the part, e.g. self-cleaning effect or antireflection behavior. Nowadays mainly flat surfaces are structured which is a consequence of the available production methods. However, the demand of micro structured free form surfaces is increasing, enabling novel products. A major problem in the mass production (e.g. injection molding) of structured freeform surfaces is to demold these structures without ripping or deforming them due to occurring undercuts. Recently a novel concept was developed which overcomes this limitation. A nickel substrate containing a structure composed of lines orientated in two different directions, one orientated in melt flow direction, the other one perpendicular to that, but both with a cross-section of approximately 45 μm × 55 μm (w × h) was used as a premaster to cast a flexible master. This master made of poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) was mounted on a bending edge in an injection mold cavity. Within this paper the influence of process parameters on the replication grade of the structure lines depending on the structure orientation was evaluated, varying the holding pressure, melt and mold temperature using statistical design of experiment methods. The replication grade was evaluated by characterizing the shape of the structure lines along the entire process chain, using an infinite focus system. The results show, that the melt temperature has the biggest influence on the dimensions of the structures, the mold temperature only a slight one.

We have modified scanning transmission x‐ray microscopes (STXM) at the Canadian Light Source and the Advanced Light Source with total electron yield (TEY) detection (TEY‐STXM). This provides improved surface‐sensitive detection, simultaneous with existing bulk‐sensitive transmission detection in the STXM microscopes. We have explored sample‐current and channeltron‐based electron yield detection. Both approaches provide improved surface sensitive imaging and spectroscopy, although channeltron‐based detection is superior. TEY‐STXM provides surface sensitive imaging of ultrathin films such as phase‐separated Langmuir‐Blodgett monolayer films, as well as differentiation of surface and bulk oxides of patterned metallic thin films. This paper will outline the experimental challenges of this method and the opportunities for correlative surface and bulk measurements of complex samples.

Dissolved oxygen (DO) is an important parameter in biomedical and cell‐culture applications. Several studies have found cell survival and function to be intimately linked to oxygen concentration. Laminar flow, as observed in microfluidic devices, provides an ideal environment to manipulate and control concentration gradients. In this paper we demonstrate the first characterization of integrated fluorescence‐based oxygen sensors for DO measurement within a cell‐culture bioreactor device. Solid‐state PtOEPK/PS sensor patterns were integrated into the PDMS‐based bioreactor and calibrated for detection of DO concentration with a superimposed layer of collagen and Ishikawa human endometrial cancer cells. The sensor signal of the layer subjacent to the cells was found to follow a Stern‐Volmer model and the intensity ratio was measured to I0/I100 = 3.9 after 3 days in culture. The device provides a novel tool for the control and spatially‐resolved measurement of oxygen levels in cellular assays and cell‐culture ...

Coaxial cable conductors in the form of helical tape windings have been proposed in order to make Nb3Sn cables which have flexibility and the ability to take up thermal contraction. For ac power transmission the axial magnetic fields which occur in a simple helical construction produce a number of undesirable consequences. It has been shown that these problems can be avoided by using double layer windings of opposite helicity, with 45° as the optimum helix angle. However, smaller values than this are desirable for mechanical reasons, and this paper extends the theory to include pitch angles < 45°. Measurements on short cable models are shown to be in reasonable agreement with calculation. The effect of current flow around the superconductor tape edges, which occurs in helical windings, is analyzed and it is shown that appreciable ac loss can arise if laminated tape with non‐superconductive edges is used indiscriminately.