Improving advanced two-dimensional braided composite materials for industrial applications: manufacturing, testing and modeling

近几十年来，航空航天、汽车、生物医学、民用、体育器材等领域都在使用复合材料。复合材料的生产和使用构成了数十亿美元的产业。复合材料由于其重量轻、机械性能高和耐环境性而使许多行业发生了革命性变化。这些特性导致了重要的能源和材料节约。编织是最古老的纺织品之一。最近，高端行业已经探索或正在使用编织复合材料作为产品和部件开发的一种可能选择。编织复合材料是非常通用的材料，高度适应于许多应用。与其他复合材料制造工艺相比，编织复合材料的吸收相对较慢。像编织一样通用的制造技术有大量的考虑因素和复杂性。很少有行业使用编织复合材料的原因是，在开发和使用先进的编织复合材料方面存在许多挑战：制造质量，对其在复杂和疲劳载荷下的性能和行为的全面了解，以及因此预测其性能。对于那些有兴趣考虑编织复合材料的人来说，系统的总体成本和所需的研究往往使其成为一个低投资回报的解决方案。然而，如果这些挑战在最先进的装备研究设施中得到成功解决，编织可以成为一个非常广泛的行业的先进制造的主食。我在复合材料方面的研究计划侧重于更好地理解主要是二维编织复合材料的行为和生产，以及将我们的相关发现转化为工业。在过去的10年里，我和我在多用途复合材料集团的团队在满足编织复合材料制造，机械测试和机械性能预测挑战方面取得了重大进展。这项NSERC发现补助金提案建立在以前赠款的成功基础上，旨在在短期内解决以下编织复合材料挑战：使用机器视觉系统提高制造过程和编织复合材料最终产品的质量;了解编织复合材料在复杂和疲劳载荷情况下的行为;并根据精确测量的几何形状开发新模型，以更好地预测机械性能和疲劳行为。我的团队拥有一个特殊的环境（设备和合作者），可以在其中学习，成长并成为学术和/或行业领导者。在接下来的五年里，我希望用这笔赠款每年培养3名博士和3名硕士，以及2名本科生。

In recent decades, the aerospace, automotive, biomedical, civil, sports equipment fields, for example, have been using composite materials. Composite materials production and use constitute a multi-billion dollar industry. Composite materials have revolutionized a number of industries due to their lightweight, high mechanical performance, and environmental resistance. Such characteristics have led to important energy and material savings. Braids are one of the oldest textiles. Recently, high end industries, have explored, or are using, braided composite materials as one possible option in product and component development. Braided composites are very versatile materials, highly adaptable to a number of applications. The uptake of braided composites has been relatively slow compared to other composite material manufacturing processes. A manufacturing technique that is as versatile as braiding comes with a large number of considerations and complexities. The reasons few industries are using braided composites is that there are a number of challenges in developing and using advanced braided composite material: quality of manufacturing, comprehensive understanding of their properties and behaviour under complex and fatigue loading, and as a result, predicting their properties. For those interested in considering braided composites, the overall costs of the systems and the research required, often makes it a low return on investment solution. However, if these challenges are successfully addressed in a state-of-the-art equipped research facility, braiding can become a staple of advanced manufacturing for a very board range of industries.My research program in composite materials focuses on better understanding the behaviour and production of primarily two-dimensional braided composite materials, as well as translating our related discoveries to industry. In the past 10 years, my team and I at the Multipurpose Composite Group, have been making significant headway in meeting the braided composite manufacturing, mechanical testing, and mechanical property prediction challenges. This NSERC Discovery Grant proposal, which builds on the successes of previous grants, aims to address in the short term the following braided composite material challenges: using a machine vision system to improve the quality of the manufacturing process and braided composite end product; understanding the behaviour of braided composites under complex and fatigue loading scenarios; and develop new models, based on accurately measured geometry, to better predict mechanical properties as well as fatigue behaviour.My group has an exceptional environment (equipment and collaborators) in which to learn, grow and become academic and/or industrial leaders. For the next five years I expect to train 3 PhDs and 3 MSc, as well as 2 undergraduate students per year with this grant.