Fundamental Study of Fatigue Life Enhancement in Hierarchical Carbon-Fiber/Epoxy/Nanoparticle Composites

多级碳纤维/环氧树脂/纳米颗粒复合材料疲劳寿命增强的基础研究

• 批准号: 2015750
• 负责人: Nikhil Koratkar
• 金额: $ 39.75万
• 依托单位: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-09-01 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2015750&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Fundamental; Study; Fatigue; Life; Enhancement

Carbon-fiber reinforced composites, with their favorable strength-to-weight and stiffness-to-weight ratios, are replacing their metal counterparts in a variety of high-performance structural applications. However, the principal limitation of such composite materials is their brittle failure and insufficient fatigue life. A new concept for fatigue-resistant carbon-fiber composites features a modified epoxy resin matrix that is infiltrated with nanoparticle additives. These nanoscale particles will be engineered to interfere with or disrupt crack propagation processes and thereby significantly prolong the fatigue life of the composite material. The ability to combat fatigue is critical for safe and reliable operation as well as reduction in the operational and maintenance costs for structural components. This will be of great benefit to the aerospace, defense, energy and automotive industries which extensively use carbon-fiber reinforced plastics. One of the emerging industries where such new fatigue-resistant materials can have high impact is in wind energy. Wind is one of the fastest growing energy technologies on the globe and enhancing the fatigue properties and the operating life of carbon-fiber composite materials used in wind turbine construction is therefore of great practical relevance.The goal of this project is to understand the fundamental mechanisms by which the nanoparticle additives enhance the fatigue life of the composite material and to reveal how these mechanisms are affected by the geometry, interface strength, loading fraction and dispersion of nanoparticles. To accomplish this, investigators will employ an integrated modeling, simulation, manufacturing, characterization and experimental fatigue testing approach to understand and optimize the underlying mechanisms that are responsible for fatigue life improvement. To be consistent with industrial practices, researchers will manufacture pre-pregs in which microfiber plies are pre-impregnated with nanoparticle-laden epoxy resins, or in which nanoparticles are pre-dispersed on the microfibers which are then impregnated with neat resins. The fundamental knowledge gained from the above tasks will be applied to establish processing-structure-property relationships that will be used to manufacture proof-of-concept carbon fiber-reinforced composites with optimized nanoparticle geometry, loading, dispersion and interface strength. These composites will be tested to quantify and benchmark the fatigue-life improvements that can be achieved relative to the traditional composites used by industry. This project will lead to an in-depth understanding of the role of the nanoparticle geometry, surface chemistry, loading fraction and dispersion in fatigue life improvements for the next generation of carbon-fiber reinforced 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.

碳纤维增强复合材料具有良好的强度重量比和刚度重量比，在各种高性能结构应用中正在取代金属材料。然而，这种复合材料的主要限制是它们的脆性破坏和不足的疲劳寿命。抗疲劳碳纤维复合材料的一个新概念是在改性环氧树脂基体中渗透纳米颗粒添加剂。这些纳米级颗粒将被设计成干扰或破坏裂纹扩展过程，从而显著延长复合材料的疲劳寿命。抗疲劳能力对于安全可靠的操作以及降低结构部件的操作和维护成本至关重要。这将对广泛使用碳纤维增强塑料的航空航天、国防、能源和汽车行业大有裨益。这种新型抗疲劳材料可以产生巨大影响的新兴行业之一是风能。风力发电是地球仪上发展最快的能源技术之一，因此提高风力涡轮机结构中使用的碳纤维复合材料的疲劳性能和工作寿命具有重要的实际意义。本项目的目标是了解纳米颗粒添加剂提高复合材料疲劳寿命的基本机制，并揭示这些机制如何受到几何形状、几何形状、几何形状和尺寸的影响。界面强度、负载率和纳米粒子的分散性。为了实现这一目标，研究人员将采用集成的建模，仿真，制造，表征和实验疲劳测试方法来理解和优化负责疲劳寿命提高的潜在机制。为了与工业实践保持一致，研究人员将制造预浸料，其中微纤维层片预浸渍有纳米颗粒负载的环氧树脂，或者其中纳米颗粒预分散在微纤维上，然后用纯树脂浸渍。从上述任务中获得的基础知识将用于建立工艺-结构-性能关系，这些关系将用于制造具有优化的纳米颗粒几何形状，负载，分散和界面强度的概念验证碳纤维增强复合材料。这些复合材料将进行测试，以量化和基准的疲劳寿命的改善，可以实现相对于传统的复合材料的工业使用。该项目将使人们深入了解纳米颗粒的几何形状、表面化学性质、载荷分数和分散度在下一代碳纤维增强复合材料疲劳寿命改善中的作用。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

Improvement in fatigue life of carbon fibre reinforced polymer composites via a Nano-Silica Modified Matrix

• DOI: 10.1016/j.carbon.2020.08.029
• 发表时间: 2020-12-01
• 期刊: CARBON
• 影响因子: 10.9
• 作者: Kamble, Mithil;Lakhnot, Aniruddha Singh;Koratkar, Nikhil
• 通讯作者: Koratkar, Nikhil

Reversing fatigue in carbon-fiber reinforced vitrimer composites

• DOI: 10.1016/j.carbon.2021.10.078
• 发表时间: 2021-11-08
• 期刊: CARBON
• 影响因子: 10.9
• 作者: Kamble, Mithil;Vashisth, Aniruddh;Koratkar, Nikhil
• 通讯作者: Koratkar, Nikhil