• Composites Research
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.355-360
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• 2023

Epoxy-based carbon fibers reinforced plastic (CFRP) exhibit limitations in their suitability for industrial applications due to high brittleness characteristics. To address this challenge, extensive investigations are underway to enhance their toughness properties. This research focuses on evaluating the toughening mechanisms achieved by Polyamide 6 particles(p-PA6) and Carboxyl-Terminated Butadiene-Acrylonitrile (CTBN) elastomer, with a specific emphasis on utilizing minimal additive quantities. The study explores the impact of varying concentrations of p-PA6 and CTBN additives, namely 0.5, 1, 2.5, and 5 phr, through comprehensive Mode I fracture toughness and tensile strength analyses. The inclusion of p-PA6 demonstrated improvements in toughness when introduced at a relatively low content of 1phr. This improvement manifested as a sustained fracture behavior, contributing to enhanced toughness, while simultaneously maintaining the material's tensile strength. Furthermore, the investigation revealed that the incorporation of p-PA6 affected in particle aggregation, thus influencing the overall toughening mechanism. Incorporation of CTBN, an elastomeric modifier, exhibited a pronounced increase in fracture toughness at higher concentrations of 2.5 phr and beyond. However, this increase in toughness was accompanied by a reduction in tensile strength, resulting in fracture behavior similar to conventional CFRP exhibiting brittleness. The synergy between pPA6, CTBN and CFRP appeared to marginally enhance tensile strength under specific content conditions. As a result of this study, optimized conditions for the application of the p-PA6, CTBN toughening technology have been identified and established.

• Composites Research
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.139-146
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• 2022

In this study, we study fabrication methods suitable for CNT fibers-based composite. We try to fabricate a composite material using a small amount of CNT fiber preparation of woven fabrics or stitched unidirectional fabrics consisting of CNT fiber is not achievable currently. The composite materials on the basis of CNT fibers have been mainly manufactured filament winding method due to productivity issues and difficulties in composite processes. We develop a new method to prepare CNT fibers-based composite using resin infiltrated CNT fibers-based films. Because CNT fibers have numerous nanopores inside, unnecessary resin can remain after curing and decrease the mechanical properties of the composites. To remove the excess resin, pressure should be applied during the process, but the pressure applied through VaRTM was not enough to remove the excess resin. To obtain the composite with high ratio of CNT fibers, higher pressure using hot press machine and foams next to the resin-infiltrated CNT fibers are necessary. We can obtain the composite having a mass ratio of 58.5 wt% based on the new suggested method and diluted epoxy. The specific strength of the composite reach 0.525 N/tex. This study presents a new process method that can be applied to the manufacturing of CNT fiber composite materials in the future.

• Composites Research
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.84-90
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• 1999

High alumina cement(HAC) and polyvinyl alcohol(PVA) based macro-defect-free(MDF) cement composites were reinforced using short carbon fibers, 3mm in length, 1-4% in weight fraction and insoluble polymers such as polyurethane, epoxy, phenol resin, in order to increase mechanical properties and water stability. The specimens were manufactured by the low heat-press(warmpress) method. In addition, the interface and the cross-linking reaction of cement and polymers was also studied by the SEM and TEM. Flexural strength of HAC/PVA based MDF cementitious composites was proportionally decreased with increasing fiber contents due to the undensified structure around fibers. The flexural strength of insoluble polymer added specimen was decreased with increasing fiber contents, while water stability was dramatically improved. Epoxy resin added specimen showed the highest strength with increasing fiber contents, compared with other specimens. The water stability of fiber content 4% added specimen immersed in water presented about 95%, 87% at 3 and 7 days immersed in water, respectively. The interfacial adhesive strength of fiber-matrix was very much improved due to cross linking reaction of polymer and metal ions of cement. Tensile strength of insoluble polymers added composites as linearly increased with increasing the fiber contents. The epoxy resin added specimen also showed highest tensile strength. The 4% fiber added specimen presented 30~80% higher strength than controlled specimen.

• Composites Research
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.88-93
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• 2018

In this study, damaged composite laminates were repaired by a stepped patch repair method using halloysite nanotube(HNT) and milled carbon(MC) reinforced composite materials with different amount of the particles. And the mechanical and structural effects of the particles on the interface between the damaged and repair surfaces were analyzed. At this time, after exposing them to a harsh environment of high temperature and humidity for a long time, the recovery rate of the material properties relative to the material forming the damaged plate was compared. As a result, at $70^{\circ}C$ high temperature distilled water, the hygroscopicity of the HNT/GFRP composites was significantly different from that of the MC/GFRP composites. Especially, 0.5, 1 wt. % HNT was added, the moisture absorption rate was the lowest and this was the factor that contributed to the mechanical strength increase. On the other hand, MC showed a high hygroscopic resistance only with a small amount, and the strength was different according to the action direction of the load, and the addition amount was also different.

• Composites Research
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.7-13
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• 2010

Type3 cylinder is a composite pressure vessel fully over-wrapped with carbon/epoxy composite layers over an aluminum liner, which is the most ideal and safe high pressure gas container for CNG vehicles due to the lightweight and the leakage-before-burst characteristics. During service in CNG vehicle, if a fiber cut damage occurs in outer composite layers, it can degrade structural performance, reducing cycling life from the original design life. In this study, finite element modeling and analysis technique for the composite cylinder with fiber-cut crack damage is presented. Because FE analysis of type3 cylinder is path dependant due to plastic deformation of aluminum liner in autofrettage process, method to introduce a crack into FE model affect analysis result. A crack should be introduced after autofrettage in analysis step considering real circumstances where crack occurs during usage in service. For realistic simulation of this situation, FE modeling and analysis technique introducing a crack in the middle of analysis step is presented and the results are compared with usual FE analysis which has initial crack in the model from the beginning of analysis. Proposed analysis technique can be used effectively in the evaluation of influence of damage on composite layers of type3 cylinder and establish inspection criteria of composite cylinder in service.

• Composites Research
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.83-87
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• 2018

An object in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is affected by many environmental conditions unlike earth's surface such as, Atomic oxygen (AO), Ultraviolet Radiation (UV), thermal cycling, High Vacuum and Micrometeoroids and Orbital Debris (MMOD) impacts. The effect of all these parameters have to be carefully considered when designing a space structure, as it could be very critical for a space mission. Polybenzimidazole (PBI) is a high performance thermoplastic polymer that could be a suitable material for space missions because of its excellent resistance to these environmental factors. A thin coating of PBI polymer on the carbon epoxy composite laminate (referred as CFRP) was found to improve the energy absorption capability of the laminate in event of a hypervelocity impact. However, the overall efficiency of the shield also depends on other factors like placement and orientation of the laminates, standoff distances and the number of shielding layers. This paper studies the effectiveness of using a PBI coating on the front bumper in a multi-shock shield design for enhanced hypervelocity impact resistance. A thin PBI coating of 43 micron was observed to improve the shielding efficiency of the CFRP laminate by 22.06% when exposed to LEO environment conditions in a simulation chamber. To study the effectiveness of PBI coating in a hypervelocity impact situation, experiments were conducted on the CFRP and the PBI coated CFRP laminates with projectile velocities between 2.2 to 3.2 km/s. It was observed that the mass loss of the CFRP laminates decreased 7% when coated by a thin layer of PBI. However, the study of mass loss and damage area on a witness plate showed CFRP case to have better shielding efficiency than PBI coated CFRP laminate case. Therefore, it is recommended that PBI coating on the front bumper is not so effective in improving the overall hypervelocity impact resistance of the space structure.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.149-156
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• 2007

The present study provides structural design and analysis of main wing and horizontal tail of a small scale WIG(Wing in Ground Effect) vehicle which has been developed as a part of the high speed maritime transportation system for the future of Korea. Weight saving as well as structural stability could be achieved by skin-spar with foam sandwich design and with wide application of carbon/epoxy composite material. A commercial FEM code, NASTRAN, was utilized to confirm the structural safety and stability through sequential design modifications to meet the final design goal. In addition, each wing and the fuselage were fastened together by eight insert bolts with high strength to accomodate easy assembling and disassembling as well as to guarantee a service life longer than 20 years.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.501-504
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• 2011

In this study, structural design of the propeller blade for turboprop aircraft was performed. The propeller shall have high strength to get the thrust to fly at high speed. The high stiffness and strength carbon/epoxy composite material was used for the major structure and skin-spar-foam sandwich structural type was adopted for improvement of lightness. As a design procedure for the present study, firstly the structural design load was estimated through investigation on aerodynamic load and then flanges of spars from major bending loads and the skin from shear loads were preliminarily sized using the netting rule. In order to investigate the structural safety and stability, stress analysis was performed by finite element analysis code MSC. NASTRAN. Finally, it is investigated that designed blade have high efficiency and structural safety to analyze of aerodynamic and structural design results.

• Composites Research
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.1-9
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• 2001

A new non-destructive fatigue prediction model of the composite laminates is developed. The natural frequencies of fatigue-damaged laminates under extensional loading are related to the fatigue life of the laminates by establishing the equivalent flexural stiffness reduction as a function of the elastic properties of sublaminates. The flexural stiffness is derived by relating the 90-ply elastic modulus reduction, and using the laminate plate theory to the degraded elastic modulus and the intact elastic modulus of other laminates. The natural frequency reduction model, in which the dominant fatigue mode can be identified from the sensitivity scale factors of sublaminate elastic properties, provides natural frequency vs. fatigue cycle curves for the composite laminates. Vibration tests were also conducted on $[{90}_2/0_2]_s$ carbon/epoxy laminates to verify the natural frequency reduction model. Correlations between the predictions of the model and experimental results are good.

• Composites Research
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.336-341
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• 2016

This paper conducted the study on the electromagnetic and mechanical applicability of CNT-coated glass fiber for wind blades. Large-size wind blade has the serious pending problems to meet the target, such as interfering radar signals, increasing weights, and increasing repair costs. In this paper, we are suggesting the CNT-coated glass fiber in order to overcome these problems. First, the CNTs were strongly coated on the surfaces of glass fiber by suggested coating process, and the CNT-coated glass fiber/epoxy composites were fabricated by Va-RTM process. We designed and fabricated a radar absorbing structure using the CNT-coated glass fiber, which showed over 90% radar absorbing performance between 8.3 and 12.1 GHz frequency. In addition, we confirmed the improvement of mechanical properties on the strength and modulus of tensile, compressive, and in-plane shear.