• Composites Research
• /
• v.33 no.5
• /
• pp.296-301
• /
• 2020

Laminated composite materials have excellent in-plane properties, but are vulnerable in thickness directions, making it easy to delamination when bending and torsion loads are applied. Thickness directional reinforcement methods of composite materials that delay delamination include Z-pinning, Stitching, Tufting, etc., and typically Z-pinning and Stitching method are commonly used. The Z-pinning is reinforcement method by inserting metal or carbon pin in the thickness direction of prepreg, and the conventional stitching process is a method of reinforcing the mechanical properties in the thickness direction by intersecting the upper and lower fibers on the preform. In this paper, I-fiber stitching method, which complement and improve weakness of Z-pinning and Stitching method, was proposed, and the static strength of composite single-lap joints using I-fiber stitching process were evaluated. The single-lap joints were fabricated by a co-curing method using an autoclave vacuum bag process. The thickness of the composite adherend was fixed, and 5 types of specimens were manufactured with varying the stitching pattern (5×5, 7×7) and angle (0°, 45°). From the test, the failure load of the specimen reinforced by the I-fiber stitching process was increased by up to 143% compared to that of specimen without reinforcement.

• Composites Research
• /
• v.35 no.5
• /
• pp.322-327
• /
• 2022

Composite lap joints have been extensively used due to their excellent properties and the demand for light structures. However, due to the weak mechanical properties in the thickness direction, the lap joint is easily fractured. various reinforcement methods that delay fracture by dispersing stress concentration have been applied to overcome this problem, such as z-pinning and conventional stitching. The Z-pinning is reinforcement method by inserting metal or carbon pin in the thickness direction of prepreg, and the conventional stitching process is a method of reinforcing the mechanical properties in the thickness direction by intersecting the upper and lower fibers on the preform. I-fiber stitching method is a promising technology that combines the advantages of both z-pinning and the conventional stitching. In this paper, the static and fatigue strengths of the single-lap joints reinforced by the I-fiber stitching process were evaluated. The single-lap joints were fabricated by a co-curing method using an autoclave vacuum bag process and I-fiber reinforcing effects were evaluated according to adherend thickness and stitching angle. From the experiments, the thinner the composite joint specimen, the higher the I-fiber reinforcement effect, and Ifiber stitched single lap joints showed a 52% improvement in failure strength and 118% improvement in fatigue strength.

• Composites Research
• /
• v.34 no.5
• /
• pp.317-322
• /
• 2021

When a complex load such as torsion, low-speed impact, or fatigue load is applied, the properties in the thickness direction are weakened through microcracks inside the material due to the nature of the laminated composite material, and delamination occurs. To prevent the interlaminar delamination, various three-dimensional reinforcement methods such as Z-pinning and stitching, and structural health monitoring techniques that detect the microcrack of structures in real time have been continuously studied. In this paper, the single-lap joints with I-fiber stitching process were manufactured by a co-curing method and their strengths and failure detection capability were evaluated. AE and electric resistance method were used for detection of crack and failure signal and electric circuit for signal analysis was manufactured, and failure signal was analyzed during the tensile test of a single-lap joint. From the experiment, the strength of the single lap joint reinforced by I-fiber stitching process was improved by about 44.6% compared to the co-cured single lap joint without reinforcement. In addition, as the single-lap joint reinforced by I-fiber stitching process can detect failure in both the electrical resistance method and the AE method, it has been proven to be an effective structure for failure monitoring as well as strength improvement.

• Composites Research
• /
• v.32 no.2
• /
• pp.102-107
• /
• 2019

Several studies related to reinforce composites structures in the through thickness direction have been developed along the years. As follows, in this study a new reinforced process is proposed based on previous experimental results using a novel stitching process in T-joints and one-stitched specimens. It was established the need to perform more analysis under standard test methods to obtain a better understanding. FEM analysis were compared after performed mode I interlaminar fracture toughness test, using different stitching patterns to analyze the through thickness strength with reference laminates without stitching. The stitching patterns were defined in $2{\times}2$ and $3{\times}3$, where the upper and lower head of the non-continuous stitching process (I-Fiber) has proven to influence in a higher through thickness strength of the laminate. In order to design the numerical model, cohesive parameters were required to define the surface to surface bonding elements using the cohesive zone method (CZM) and simulate the crack opening behavior from the double cantilever beam (DCB) test.

• Composites Research
• /
• v.34 no.1
• /
• pp.30-34
• /
• 2021

This paper present a three-dimensional unit cell finite element analysis to predict the pull-out behavior of a single stitch in a composite laminate. The stitching process used for this study correspond to the I-fiber stitching method that has been studied by the Composite Structures Lab (CSL) as a new through-thickness reinforced method. A total of six cases were analyzed, which were divided in two groups by the stitching yarn used, 6k and 12k. Each group of cases have three different thickness according to the amount of plies; 16 plies, 32 plies and 64 plies. The finite element analysis used the cohesive zone method to characterize the single stitch reinforcement in the interface. Due to the complexity of the load vs displacement curves taken from the experimental results, a bilinear and trilinear bridging laws were implemented in the models. The cohesive parameters used for each case showed a good agreement with the experimental data and can be used for future studies.

• Advanced Composite Materials
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.121-134
• /
• 2009

The present study investigated, both experimentally and numerically, the improvement of low-velocity impact damage resistance of carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) laminates due to through-the-thickness stitching. First, we conducted drop-weight impact tests for stitched and unstitched laminates. The results of damage inspection confirmed that stitching did improve the impact damage resistance, and revealed that the improvement effect became greater as the impact energy increased. Moreover, the stitching affected the through-the-thickness damage distribution. Next, we performed FEM analysis and calculated the energy release rate of the delamination crack using the virtual crack closure technique (VCCT). The numerical results revealed that the stitching affected the through-the-thickness damage distribution because the stitch threads had a marked effect on decreasing both the modes I and II energy release rate around the bottom of the laminate. Comparison of the results for models that contained delaminations of various sizes revealed that the energy release rate became lower as delamination size increased; therefore the stitching improved the impact resistance more effectively when the impact energy was higher.

• Advanced Composite Materials
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.95-113
• /
• 2007

Experimental investigations of interlaminar mechanical properties for carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) laminates were carried out using aramid fiber ($Kevlar^{(R)}$-29 1000d) and carbon fiber (TR40-1K 612d, Mitsubishi Rayon) stitching. Various carbon fiber (CF) stitch densities were used to prepare a number of CF stitched CFRP laminates for double cantilever beam (DCB) tests. An insert tongue-type loading fixture, developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (formerly the National Aerospace Laboratory of Japan), was also employed in the DCB test. Interlaminar tension tests were carried out under an out-of-plane directional loading using a single CF stitch thread in the CFRP laminates. The DCB test results clarified that the relationship between the volume fractions of the CF stitch thread ($V_{ft}$) and mode I critical energy release rate ($G_{Ic}$) showed a mostly linear function with a higher gradient than that of the $Kevlar^{(R)}$ stitched CFRP laminates. The CF stitched CFRP tension test results indicated that the consumption energy per unit area ($E_i$) was larger than that of $Kevlar^{(R)}$ stitched CFRP laminates.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.15 no.5
• /
• pp.1091-1100
• /
• 2018

In this study, the relationships between hydraulic conductivity of GCLs and physico-chemical properties of bentonites were assessed. In addition to four factory manufactured GCLs, six artificially prepared GCLs (AP-GCLs) were tested. AP-GCLs were prepared in the laboratory without bonding or stitching. A total of 20 hydraulic conductivity tests were conducted using flexible wall permeameters ten of which were permeated with distilled deionized water (DIW) and the rest were permeated with tap water (TW). The hydraulic conductivity of GCLs and AP-GCLs were between $5.2{\times}10^{-10}cm/s$ and $3.0{\times}10^{-9}cm/s$. The hydraulic conductivities of all GCLs to DIW were very similar to that of GCLs to TW. Then, simple regression analyses were conducted between hydraulic conductivity and physicochemical properties of bentonite. The best correlation coefficient was achieved when hydraulic conductivity was related with clay content (R=0.85). Liquid limit and plasticity index were other independent variables that have good correlation coefficients with hydraulic conductivity (R~0.80). The correlation coefficient with swell index is less than other parameters, but still fairly good (R~0.70). In contrast, hydraulic conductivity had poor correlation coefficients with specific surface area (SSA), smectite content and cation exchange capacity (CEC) (i.e., R < 0.5). Furthermore, some post-test properties of bentonite such as final height and final water content were correlated with the hydraulic conductivity as well. The hydraulic conductivity of GCLs had fairly good correlation coefficients with either final height or final water content. However, those of AP-GCLs had poor correlations with these variables on account of fiber free characteristics.