Bioinspired composites for the future: sustainable hybrid composites for compression

面向未来的仿生复合材料：用于压缩的可持续混合复合材料

• 批准号: 2747461
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Bristol
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2747461
• 关键词: Bioinspired; composites; future; sustainable; hybrid

In recent decades, continuous synthetic fibre-reinforced polymers have become increasingly popular for advanced structural applications. This is largely due to their superior specific properties, corrosion resistance and potential for enhanced fatigue performance when compared to their metallic counterparts. However, with the sustainability of engineering materials becoming an increasingly important consideration amid growing environmental concerns, interest in natural fibre composites (NFCs) is growing due to their potential to replace synthetic fibre-reinforced polymers with improved sustainability and at a lower cost. NFCs can also offer specific properties comparable to E-glass fibre, which is one of the most common reinforcing fibres for polymer composites. Despite this, the uptake of NFCs for structural and load-bearing applications is limited. One key reason for this is the current gap in knowledge regarding their mechanical behaviour. In particular, very few reports in open literature discuss the compressive performance of NFCs, and the resulting scarcity of data severely degrades confidence in the use of NFCs for load-bearing applications. The longitudinal compressive performance is design-limiting for continuous fibre-reinforced polymers. The compressive loads that arise in structures are typically accounted for at the design stage with higher safety factors. This often results in overdesigned and inefficient structures, further solidifying the need for investigating the compressive performance of NFCs. The aim of the project is to characterise the compressive failure of NFCs and develop an understanding of principles that govern the failure of NFCs in compression. Hybridisation will be investigated as a means to improve mechanical performance. The application of hierarchical and functional grading will also be considered since there is undoubted potential for bioinspired hierarchical architectures to help resolve the challenges that arise from intrinsically conflicting property demands. The end goal of the PhD is to produce and conduct macro-scale testing to assess the structurally representative performance of an NFC component. The design of this component will utilise the new understanding of sustainable hybrid composites developed throughout the project. Given the importance of future-proofing composites, the findings of this work could help industries working towards sustainable material solutions. The development of novel material systems with improved compressive performance may encourage new industries, which currently do not routinely use composites, to use higher-performance materials. They may be enabled to do so by the resulting less stringent design limits. Industries of interest include but are not limited to, the marine, wind energy and automotive sectors.

近几十年来，连续合成纤维增强聚合物在先进的结构应用中越来越受欢迎。这在很大程度上是由于它们的上级特性、耐腐蚀性和与金属对应物相比增强疲劳性能的潜力。然而，随着工程材料的可持续性在日益增长的环境问题中成为越来越重要的考虑因素，对天然纤维复合材料（NFC）的兴趣正在增长，因为它们有可能取代合成纤维增强聚合物，具有更好的可持续性和更低的成本。NFC还可以提供与E-玻璃纤维相当的特定性能，E-玻璃纤维是聚合物复合材料最常见的增强纤维之一。尽管如此，NFC在结构和承重应用中的应用仍然有限。其中一个关键原因是目前对它们的机械行为的认识存在差距。特别是，公开文献中很少有报告讨论NFC的压缩性能，由此产生的数据稀缺严重降低了人们对NFC用于承载应用的信心。纵向压缩性能是连续纤维增强聚合物的设计限制。结构中出现的压缩载荷通常在设计阶段以较高的安全系数进行计算。这通常会导致过度设计和低效的结构，进一步巩固了研究NFC压缩性能的需求。该项目的目的是研究NFC的压缩失效，并了解NFC压缩失效的原理。杂交将被研究作为一种手段，以提高机械性能。由于生物启发的分层结构具有很大的潜力，有助于解决本质上相互冲突的属性需求所带来的挑战，因此也将考虑分层和功能分级的应用。博士的最终目标是生产和进行宏观规模的测试，以评估NFC组件的结构代表性性能。该组件的设计将利用整个项目开发的可持续混合复合材料的新理解。考虑到面向未来的复合材料的重要性，这项工作的发现可以帮助行业实现可持续的材料解决方案。具有改进的压缩性能的新型材料系统的开发可以鼓励目前不常规使用复合材料的新行业使用更高性能的材料。他们可能会这样做的结果不太严格的设计限制。感兴趣的行业包括但不限于海洋，风能和汽车行业。