Mechanical characterization of recycle FRP fibers by nano-indentation

再生纤维增强复合材料作为一种有潜力的温室气体减排材料，需求量很大 在建筑和汽车行业，回收的压力很大。通常，复合材料 材料由所谓的再生纤维增强塑料（FRP）纤维增强， 加工以形成微米至纳米尺寸的纤维或颗粒。 Antex Western是一家位于MB温尼伯的公司，开发各种类型的FRP增强材料。 用于室内和室外建筑产品的复合材料。该公司正在寻找解决方案，以优化小型 尺寸回收FRP纤维，这是必不可少的强大FRP增强复合材料的设计。由于 由于纤维和颗粒的尺寸都很小（例如，低至纳米级），因此表征它们的特性是具有挑战性的。 机械性能的常规设施，这是专为测试样品具有显着较大的 尺寸因此，用于微机械甚至纳米机械表征的特殊专业知识和设施 目前，这是不可能的，在西方。 在该项目中，申请人建议对可从以下公司获得的微米和纳米尺寸的FRP样品进行表征： Antex西方主要是通过使用纳米压痕和FRP强度之间的相关性进行调查 纤维及其尺寸、涂层类型以及加工时间和技术（即，球磨对锤磨）。 与其他驻留在电子显微镜中的原位纳米力学测试仪相比， 明显更便宜和更容易执行。根据该项目的调查结果，将提出建议 提供给Antex Western，以改进FRP纤维的设计和加工， 可以实现优化的强度和成本，这将大大加强其竞争力， FRP复合材料产品。

As a potential material to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, recycled fibre-reinforced composite is in demand in construction and automotive industries where the pressure to recycle is high. Usually the composite materials are reinforced by the so-called recycled fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP) fibers which are mechanically processed to form micro- to nano-sized fibers or particles. Antex Western, which is a company located in Winnipeg, MB, develops various types of FRP-reinforced composites for interior and exterior building products. The company is looking for solutions to optimize small sized recycled FRP fibers, which is essential for the design of strong FRP-reinforced composites. Due to the small size of both fibers and particles (e.g. down to nanometer scale), it is challenging to characterize their mechanical properties by conventional facilities, which are designed to test samples with significantly larger size. Therefore, special expertise and facilities for micro-mechanical or even nano-mechanical characterization are needed, which are currently not available at Antex Western. In this project, the applicant proposes to characterize the micro- and nano-sized FRP samples available from Antex Western mainly by using nanoindentation and investigate the correlation between the strength of FRP fibers and their size, types of coating and processing time and technique (i.e., ball milling vs. hammer milling). As compared to other in-situ nanomechanical tester residing in an electron microscope, nanoindentation is significantly cheaper and easier to perform. Based on the findings of this project, recommendations will be given to Antex Western to improve the design and processing of the FRP fibers so that a combination of optimized strength and cost can be achieved, which will significantly strengthen the competitiveness of their products on FRP composites.