• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.58 no.1
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• pp.32-43
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• 2023

The worldwide use of polyurethane foam products generates large amounts of waste, which in turn has detrimental effects on the surroundings. Hence, finding an economical and environmentally friendly way to dispose of or recycle foam waste is an utmost priority for researchers to overcome this problem. In that sense, the glycolysis of waste flexible polyurethane foam (WFPF) from automotive seat cushions using different industrial-grade glycols and potassium hydroxide as a catalyst to produce recovered polyol was investigated. The effect of different molecular weight polyols, catalyst concentration, and material ratio (PU foam: Glycols) on the reaction conversion and viscosity of the recovered polyols was determined. The obtained recovered polyols are obtained as single or split-phase reaction products. Besides, the foaming characteristics and physical properties such as cell morphology, thermal stability, and compressive stress-strain nature of the regenerated flexible foams based on the recovered polyols were discussed. It was observed that the regenerated flexible foams displayed good seating comfort properties as a function of hardness, sag factor, and hysteresis loss compared to the reference virgin foam. With the growing demand for a sustainable and circular economy, a global valorization of glycolysis products from polyurethane scraps can be realized by transforming them into profitable substances.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.58 no.1
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• pp.44-56
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• 2023

Additive manufacturing (AM) or three-dimensional (3D) printing of metals has been drawing significant attention due to its reliability, usefulness, and low cost with rapid prototyping. Among the various AM technologies, fused deposition modeling (FDM) or fused filament fabrication is receiving much interest because of its simple manufacturing processing, low material waste, and cost-effective equipment. FDM technology uses metal-filled polymer filaments for 3D printing, followed by debinding and sintering to fabricate complex metal parts. An efficient binder is essential for producing polymer filaments and the thermal post-processing of printed objects. This study involved an in-depth investigation of and a fabrication route for a novel multi-component binder system with steel alloy powder (45 vol.%) ranging from filament fabrication and 3D printing to debinding and sintering. The binder system consisted of polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) as a binder and thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and polylactic acid (PLA) as a carrier. The PVP binder held the metal components tightly by maintaining their stoichiometry, and the TPU and PLA in the ratio of 9:1 provided flexibility, stiffness, and strength to the filament for 3D printing. The efficacy of the binder system was examined by fabricating 3D-printed cubic structures. The results revealed that the thermal debinding and sintering processes effectively removed the binder/carrier from the cubic structures, resulting in isotropic shrinkage of approximately 15.8% in all directions. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) patterns displayed the microstructure behavior, phase transition, and elemental composition of the 3D cubic structure.

• Composites Research
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.49-55
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• 2007

Nanocomposite blade for dicing semiconductor wafer is investigated for micro/nano-device and micro/nano-fabrication. While metal blade has been used for dicing of silicon wafer, polymer composite blades are used for machining of quartz wafer in semiconductor and cellular phone industry in these days. Organic-inorganic material selection is important to provide the blade with machinability, electrical conductivity, strength, ductility and wear resistance. Maintaining constant thickness with micro-dimension during shaping is one of the important technologies fer machining micro/nano fabrication. In this study the fabrication of blade by wet processing of mixing conducting nano ceramic powder, abrasive powder phenol resin and polyimide has been investigated using an experimental approach in which the thickness differential as the primary design criterion. The effect of drying conduction and post pressure are investigated. As a result wet processing techniques reveal that reliable results are achievable with improved dimension tolerance.

• Composites Research
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.39-44
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• 2009

The effect of exposure times on the aging characteristics of carbon fiber/epoxy composite ring specimen was evaluated using an accelerating aging tester. Combined exposure conditions, such as temperature, moisture, and ultraviolet, were applied up to 3000 hours. Tensile properties and flexural properties including the effect of curvature were evaluated on the specimens subject to various exposure times through a material testing system. Their aging surfaces were observed through a scanning electron microscope. According to the results, tensile modulus was little affected by the exposure times. However, tensile strength, at the early stage of the exposure times, increased due to physical aging and curing reaction, but tensile strength slightly decreased due to degradation as the exposure times increased. The flexural modulus and flexural strength increased at the early stage of the exposure times, but slightly decreased as the exposure times increased. Aging surfaces of the specimens examined using the scanning electron microscope revealed a different morphology in various exposure times and provided useful information for identifying the degradation in mechanical properties of the composite subject to various exposure times.

• Composites Research
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.7-13
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• 2009

With the wide application of fiber-reinforced composite material in aero-structures and mechanical parts, the design of composite joint have become a very important research area because they are often the weakest areas in composite structures. In this paper, the failure strengths of the hybrid composite joints which were composed of a combination of an adhesive joint and a mechanical joint were evaluated and predicted. The 10 hybrid joint specimens which have different w/d, e/d and adherend thickness were manufactured and tested. The damage zone theory and the failure area index method were used for the failure prediction of the adhesive joint and the mechanical joint, respectively and the hybrid joints were assumed to be failures if either of the two failure criteria was satisfied. From the results of experiments and analyses, the failure strengths of the hybrid joints could be predicted to within 25.5%.

• Composites Research
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.7-14
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• 2006

In this paper, an integrated probabilistic strength analysis was conducted to predict the reliability of a composite pressure vessel under inner pressure loading condition. As a probabilistic strength analysis, the probabilistic progressive failure model consisting of progressive failure model and Monte Carlo simulation was incorporated with a commercial FEA code, ABAQUS Standard, to perform the probabilistic failure analysis of composite structure which has a complex shape and boundary conditions. As design random variables, the laminar strengths of each direction were considered. Finally, from probabilistic strength analysis, the scattering of burst pressure could be explained and the reliability of composite pressure vessel could be obtained for each component. In case of composite structures in mass production, the effects of uncertainties in material and manufacturing on the performance of composite structures would apparently become larger. So, the probabilistic strength analysis is essential for the structural design of composite structures in mass production.

• Composites Research
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.12-19
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• 2006

In this paper, conceptual structural design of the main wing for a small scale WIG(Wing in Ground Effect) among high speed ship projects, which will be a high speed maritime transportation system for the next generation in Rep. of Korea, was performed. The Carbon/Epoxy material was selected for the major structure, and the skin-spar with a foam sandwich structural type was adopted for improvement of lightness and structural stability. As a design procedure for the present study, firstly the design load was estimated through the critical flight load case study, and then flanges of the front and rear spars from major bending loads and the skin and the spar webs from shear loads were preliminarily sized using the netting rule and the rule of mixture. Stress analysis was performed by a commercial FEA code, NASTRAN. From the stress analysis results for the first designed wing structure, it was confirmed that the upper skin between the front spar and the rear spar was unstable fer the buckling. Therefore in order to solve this problem, a middle spar and the foam sandwich type structure at the skin and the web were added. After design modification, the structural safety and stability for the final design feature was confirmed. In addition to this, the insert bolt type structure with eight high strength bolts to fix the wing structure to the fuselage was adopted for easy assembly and removal as well as in consideration of more than 20 years fatigue life.

• Composites Research
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.16-22
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• 2006

The puncture properties under various conditions were investigated for the optimum conditions to yield the best properties. Fiber aspect ratio(AR: length of fiber/diameter of fiber), interphase condition and fiber content were considered as variables which impact the puncture force and friction force. The puncture force of short-fiber reinforced rubber increases up to 3.4 times compared to the virgin material. The better interphase condition shows the higher puncture force at given fiber AR and fiber content. The friction force of the matrix and reinforced rubber with a fiber AR below 155 does not exist. The friction force of the reinforced rubber with the good interphase condition and high fiber AR is higher than puncture force of matrix. Overall, it was found that the interphase condition, fiber AR and fiber content have an important effect on the puncture properties.

• Composites Research
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.23-31
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• 2006

We measured mechanical properties, including Young's modulus, effective bending modulus and nominal fracture strength of nanohoneycomb structures using an Atomic Force Microscope(AFM) and a Nano-Universal Testing Machine(UTM). Anodic aluminum oxide(AAO) films are well suited as nanohoneycomb structures because of the simple fabrication process, high aspect ratio, self-ordered hexagonal pore structure, and simple control of pore dimensions. Bending tests were carried out for cantilever structures by pressing AFM tips, and the results were compared with three-point bending tests and tensile tests using a Nano-UTM. One side of the AAO films is clogged by harrier layers, and looks like a face material of conventional sandwich structures. Analysis of this layer showed that it did not influence the bending rigidity, and was just a crack tip. The present results can act as a design guideline in applications of nanohoneycomb structures.

• Composites Research
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.1-6
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• 2006

The effects of aging on fatigue of PSF/AS4 laminates tvas studied using the new energy release rate analysis. The analysis by the variational mechanics has been useful in providing fracture mechanics interpretation of matrix microcracking in cross-ply laminates. This paper describes the changes of the critical energy release rate ${\Delta}Gmc$(microcracking toughness) about the variation of the aging period during fatigue loading. The master plot by modified Pans-law gives a characterization of a material system's resistance to microcrack formation. PSF/AS4 $[0/902]_s$ laminates were aged at four different temperatures based on the glass transition temperature for 60 days. At all temperatures, the toughness decreased with aging time. The decrease of the toughness at higher temperature was faster than at lower temperature. To assess the effects of aging on fatigue, the unaged laminates were compared with the laminates which were aged for 60 days at $170^{\circ}C$ near $180^{\circ}C\;T_g$. The slope of dD/dN versus A 6u, of the aged laminates was lower than that of the unaged laminates. There was a significant shift of the aged data to formation of microcracks at the lower values of ${\Delta}G_m$.