SBIR Phase I: Development and optimization of a novel lightweight and impact-resistant composite

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是一种独特的连续纤维复合材料，与市售的碳纤维复合材料相比，它重量轻，耐冲击性和能量吸收能力更强。由于航空航天和汽车应用以及国防和清洁能源应用的快速增长，预计美国和全球对先进复合材料的需求将稳步增长。尽管传统的和常用的由碳纤维或玻璃纤维组成的纤维增强复合材料因其高强度重量比和轻质性能而受到重视，但往往表现出脆性和低冲击耐受性。缺乏损伤容限会导致各种形式的局部和非局部材料失效，损害材料的结构完整性并产生更换成本和废料浪费。开发能够承受冲击并具有损伤容限的复合材料是必要的，以使这些材料在各种应用中得到更广泛的采用。这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目将探索材料开发和加工方法，以改进和优化拟议的新型复合材料的性能。该项目将评估由这种材料技术的不同迭代组成的配方的可行性，同时评估预处理和后处理技术的性能和可扩展性。还将探索其他细化策略，例如增强纤维-基体结合以增强抗裂纹扩展和能量分布。这将与测试方法相结合，展示各种材料属性分类以及特定应用的概念验证测试，以展示性能有效性。其目标是接近高性能金属合金的各向同性和抗冲击性能，同时保持碳纤维复合材料的轻质、高强度-重量比性能。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is a unique continuous-fiber composite that is lightweight and offers enhanced impact resistance and energy absorbance compared to commercially available carbon fiber composites. The demand for advanced composite materials is expected to steadily increase both in the United States and worldwide due to rapid growth in aerospace and automotive applications, as well as defense and clean energy applications. Though valued for their high strength-to-weight and lightweight properties, traditional and commonly-utilized fiber-reinforced composites composed of carbon fiber or fiberglass tend to exhibit brittle properties and low impact tolerance. Lack of damage tolerance leads to various forms of localized and nonlocalized material failure, compromising the material's structural integrity and incurring replacement costs and scrap waste. Developing composite materials that can withstand impact scenarios and possess damage tolerance is necessary to enable more widespread adoption of these materials across a variety of applications.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will explore material development and processing methodologies to progress and optimize the performance of the proposed novel composite material. The project will evaluate the feasibility of formulations composed of different iterations of this material technology while evaluating pre- and post-processing techniques for performance and scalability. Additional refinement strategies such as enhancing the fiber-matrix bond for enhanced anti-crack propagation and energy distribution will also be explored. This will be coupled with testing methodologies demonstrating various material property classifications as well as application-specific, proof-of-concept testing to demonstrate performance effectiveness. The goal is to approach the isotropic properties and impact resistance of high-performance metal alloys while retaining the lightweight, high strength-to-weight performance of carbon fiber composites.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.