Pultrusion of Multi-Functional Thermoplastic Composites for Harsh Environments

我们这一代人目前面临的气候危机将需要人类的聪明才智来找到解决方案，以便在恶劣的环境中生存下来。人类基础设施越来越多地暴露在高降雨量、热浪、山洪暴发和阵风中。此外，当探索我们自己的星球外时，这些恶劣的环境以月球尘埃、极端温度梯度和真空大气的形式出现。我们基础设施的结构要素不仅需要经受住这些极端条件，而且还能够收集有关其征集状态的信息，并对不断变化的环境做出反应。我们计划的长期目标是开发适用于恶劣环境的拉挤多功能热塑性复合材料结构。热塑性复合材料的拉挤采用增强纤维和热塑性聚合物前驱体，将其拉入一系列拉挤模块中，获得梁状复合材料产品。在最近几年，我们成熟了这项自动化制造技术，从而增加了它的价格。在接下来的五年里，我们将首先将运动传感功能集成到拉挤复合材料中。在恶劣和偏远的环境中，运动感知对于告知用户关键的结构运动是很重要的。运动传感功能将通过添加纳米颗粒和半导体多丝纱线等电学特性改进剂来实现。在机械征求过程中，将监测电学性能，以指示拉挤梁的变形。其次，我们将运动功能集成到拉挤复合材料中。当暴露在远程环境中的恶劣环境中时，运动将有助于重新配置结构。运动功能将通过创建热激活的人造肌肉来增加，其形式为碳增强热塑性弹性体线圈。当暴露在温度升高时，线圈长度将扩大，从而产生所需的运动。线圈膨胀的热源可以来自周围环境，也可以通过集成阻性热源来实现。运动传感、运动和热源功能将被集成在拉挤复合材料中，以产生多功能结构。我们的低成本多功能材料可以应用于建筑立面，这种立面可以在炎热的夏天提供自然降温，而在冬天则可以最大限度地减少热量损失。我们的多功能复合材料还可以用来在月球漫游车上放置隔热装置，在漫长而寒冷的月球夜晚，粉尘会损坏带有可移动部件的机械系统。将培养10名本科生、3名硕士和2名博士生。该计划将加速将拉挤生产的多功能结构转移到航空航天、汽车和体育器材行业，这些行业是加拿大经济的主要参与者。

The current climate crisis our generation is facing will require human ingenuity to find solutions in order to survive harsh environments. Human infrastructures are increasingly exposed to high precipitation levels, heat waves, flash floods, and wind gusts. Moreover, when exploring outside our own planet, these harsh environments come in form of lunar dust, extreme temperature gradients, and vacuum atmospheres. The structural elements of our infrastructures will not only need to withstand these extreme conditions, but also be able to gather information about their solicitation state, and morph to respond to changing environments. The long-term objective of our program is to develop pultruded multifunctional thermoplastic composite structures for harsh environments. The pultrusion of thermoplastic composites uses reinforcement fibers and thermoplastic polymers precursors that are pulled into a series of pultrusion modules to achieve a beam-like composite product. During the recent years, we matured this automated manufacturing technology thereby increasing its affordability. For the next five years, we will first integrate the motion sensing function to pultruded composites. Motion sensing is important to inform the user of critical structural movements in harsh and remote environments. The motion sensing function will be created by adding electrical property modifiers such as nanoparticles and semi-conducting multi-filament yarns. The electrical properties will be monitored during mechanical solicitation to indicate the pultruded beam deformation. Secondly, we will integrate the motion function to pultruded composites. Motion will help reconfigure the structure when exposed to harsh environments in remote settings. The motion function will be added by creating thermally activated artificial muscles, in the form of carbon reinforced thermoplastic elastomer coils. When exposed to a temperature increase, the coils length will expand therefore creating the desired motion. The heat source for the coil expansion can come from the surrounding environment or by integrating resistive heating sources. The motion sensing, motion and heat source functions will be integrated in pultruded composites to produce multi-functional structures. Our low-cost multifunctional materials could find applications in building facades that open to offer natural cooling in hot summers and close to minimize heat losses during winters. Our multifunctional composites could also be used to position heat containment devices on a lunar rover during the long and cold lunar nights where dust damages mechanical systems with moving parts. Ten undergraduate, three Master's, and two doctoral students will be trained. This program will accelerate the transfer of multifunctional structures produced by pultrusion to the aerospace, automotive and sports equipment industries, which are major players in the Canadian economy.