Mechanical characterization of recycle FRP fibers by nano-indentation

作为一种潜在的减少温室气体排放的材料，再生纤维增强复合材料的需求很大。 在回收压力很大的建筑和汽车行业。通常情况下，复合 材料是由所谓的回收纤维增强塑料(FRP)纤维增强的，这种纤维是机械的 加工成微米到纳米尺寸的纤维或颗粒。 Antex WESTERN是一家位于宾夕法尼亚州温尼伯的公司，开发各种类型的玻璃钢加固 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 回收玻璃钢纤维的尺寸，这对于设计坚固的玻璃钢增强复合材料是必不可少的。由于 纤维和颗粒的尺寸都很小(例如，降到纳米级)，因此很难对其进行表征 传统设备的机械性能，这些设备旨在测试具有显著更大尺寸的样品 尺码。因此，微机械甚至纳米机械表征的专门知识和设施 目前在Antex WESTERN还没有。 在本项目中，申请人提议对可从以下地点获得的微米和纳米尺寸的玻璃钢样品进行表征 ANTEX WESTERN主要采用纳米压痕和考察FRP强度之间的相关性 纤维及其尺寸、涂层类型以及加工时间和技术(即球磨与锤磨)。 与电子显微镜中的其他原位纳米机械测试仪相比，纳米压痕是 成本显著降低，执行起来也更容易。根据该项目的调查结果，建议如下 给予Antex WESTERN改进玻璃钢纤维的设计和加工，使之与 可以实现优化的实力和成本，这将显著增强其竞争力 玻璃钢复合材料的产品。

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.