SGER: Exploratory Investigations on a Novel Process for the Fabrication of Multiscale Reinforced Polymer Composites

具有圆柱形纤维增强的聚合物复合材料在许多工程应用中得到了应用。这些复合材料结构的使用寿命受到纤维脱粘和从基体中拔出等失效的显著影响。改进先进材料工程的一种方法源于对生物系统和天然材料的形态结构的研究，它们具有令人印象深刻的结构特性，这归功于分层、多尺度的微观结构。因此，与传统的圆柱形纤维增强复合材料相比，具有模拟生物和自然系统的多尺度分支增强结构的工程复合材料具有潜在的显著性能增强。这项探索性研究（SGER）项目旨在对制造这种仿生复合材料的技术进行试点调查。提出了一种基于粘性指指的流体不稳定现象的创新处理方法，该方法在适当的流动条件下产生跨越多个长度尺度的分形树形结构，以获得所需的复合材料增强结构。关于该技术实际可行性的基本未知问题，建议通过系统的实验研究来解决。所提出的创新的预期影响是，开辟了一类具有优越性能的新型复合材料结构，用于各种应用。

Polymeric composites with cylindrical fiber reinforcements are employed in many engineering applications. The service life of these composite structures is significantly impacted by failures such as fiber debonding and pull-out from the matrix. One approach to improving the engineering of advanced materials stems from an examination of the morphological architectures in biological systems and natural materials, which owe their impressive structural properties to the hierarchical, multi-scale microstructures. Engineered composite materials with multiscale, branched reinforcement structures mimicking biological and natural systems can, therefore, potentially offer significant property enhancements over conventional cylindrical fiber reinforced composites. This Small Grant for Exploratory Research (SGER) project seeks to perform pilot investigations on a technique for the fabrication of such biomimetic composites. An innovative processing method based on the fluid instability phenomenon of viscous fingering, which under appropriate flow conditions generates fractal arborescent structures spanning several length scales, is proposed to be explored for obtaining the desired reinforcement structures in the composites. The fundamental unknowns concerning the practical feasibility of the technique are proposed to be resolved through systematic experimental studies. The anticipated impact of the proposed innovation is that of opening up a new class of composite structures with superior properties, for use in diverse applications.