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J. Compos. Sci.
Special Issues
Advanced Composite Materials Applied to Structural Mechanics
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Advanced Composite Materials Applied to Structural Mechanics

A special issue of Journal of Composites Science (ISSN 2504-477X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2018) | Viewed by 19172

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Nicholas Fantuzzi

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Guest Editor
Department of Civil, Chemical, Environmental, and Materials Engineering, University of Bologna, Viale del Risorgimento 2, 40136 Bologna, Italy
Interests: modeling of offshore structures and offshore structural components; structural theories of plates and applied mathematical modeling; mechanics of solids and structures; study of composite laminated structures and advanced composite materials; fracture mechanics and crack propagation and initiation; applied numerical methods such as finite element method and mesh-free element method
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Rossana Dimitri

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Innovation Engineering, University of Salento, 73100 Lecce, Italy
Interests: damage and fracture mechanics; contact mechanics; structural mechanics; solid mechanics; computational mechanics; advanced composite materials; nanomaterials and nanotechnology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Composite materials can be widely considered in various types of structures employed in different engineering fields due to their enhanced mechanical properties, which can improve the structural behavior of these elements. Indeed, composite materials provide higher values of strength and stiffness, superior thermal properties, lower levels of weights, which can affect the mechanical behavior of beams, plates and shells, in terms of static response, vibrations, and buckling loads.

This Special Issue aims to gather several researches that investigate the dynamic behavior, static response, as well as the buckling mechanism of engineering structures made of composite materials. In addition to fiber-reinforced composites and laminates, studies on innovative components such as functionally graded materials (FGMs), Carbon nanotubes (CNTs), SMART constituents, as well as innovative and advanced classes of composites are welcomed. For these purposes, authors are invited to provide detailed constitutive models that could investigate and justify also the initiation and progression of damage. Thus, researches about delamination and debonding phenomena, fracture mechanics at different scales and adhesion of composite solids and interface between materials also fit the topics of this Special Issue.

Different methodologies are accepted as far as the description of mechanical response is concerned for enhanced structures and composite materials characterized by internal length scales and non-local behaviors. For instance, classical theories, micromechanical approaches, cohesive zone modeling of brittle and ductile materials, regularization and approximation of crack discontinuities, can be presented and discussed to this aim. Contributions are welcome, both on theoretical, experimental and numerical aspects from scientists working on mathematics and mechanics.

The mechanical response of these composite systems could be analyzed through a set of parametric studies, in order to investigate the effect of the staking sequences, ply orientations, agglomeration of nanoparticles, volume fractions of the constituents, and porosity level on their structural behavior. The effect of different external fields, such as mechanical, thermal, electrical, and magnetic, could be also taken into account, provided that a complete theoretical framework is presented and well-discussed.

Dr. Nicholas Fantuzzi
Asst. Prof. Rossana Dimitri
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Composites Science is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • adhesion
  • composite beams, plates and shells
  • laminates
  • fracture mechanics
  • functionally graded material
  • structural models
  • constitutive laws
  • damage
  • debonding
  • delamination
  • innovative composite materials
  • numerical, analytical and experimental analyses
  • static response
  • dynamic behavior
  • buckling load

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 8266 KiB  
Article
Capillary Characterization of Fibrous Reinforcement and Optimization of Injection Strategy in Resin Transfer Molding
by Philippe Causse, Christophe Ravey and François Trochu
J. Compos. Sci. 2018, 2(2), 19; https://doi.org/10.3390/jcs2020019 - 26 Mar 2018
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 5030
Abstract
During composite manufacturing, minimizing the residual void content is a key issue to ensure optimal mechanical performance of final products. For injection processes such as Resin Transfer Molding (RTM), the impregnation velocity has a direct impact on void creation at the flow front [...] Read more.
During composite manufacturing, minimizing the residual void content is a key issue to ensure optimal mechanical performance of final products. For injection processes such as Resin Transfer Molding (RTM), the impregnation velocity has a direct impact on void creation at the flow front by mechanical entrapment of air bubbles. Previous work proposed to study capillary imbibition in fibrous reinforcement to determine optimal filling conditions during practical manufacturing. The objective of this study is to investigate further this possibility. For that purpose, an improved experimental procedure is proposed to estimate the optimal impregnation velocity from capillary rise tests and understand its effect in parts of varying geometry. Capillary rise experiments were carried out with an enhanced experimental protocol, and a new post processing technique was evaluated to analyze the results. The position of the capillary flow front was then used to deduce the optimal impregnation velocity range based on the Lucas-Washburn flow model. A series of injections were also carried out with a laboratory scale RTM mold to study the influence of flow velocity on the residual void content. Results show that the prediction from capillary characterization is close to the optimal velocity value deduced from manufacturing experiments. The study also highlights the importance of void transport during processing and suggests that the injection strategy (i.e., flow rate history) and the mold configuration (i.e., divergent versus convergent flow) are important process parameters that may influence void content and cycle time. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Composite Materials Applied to Structural Mechanics)
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50 pages, 42842 KiB  
Article
On the Convergence of Laminated Composite Plates of Arbitrary Shape through Finite Element Models
by Nicholas Fantuzzi, Francesco Tornabene, Michele Bacciocchi and Antonio J.M. Ferreira
J. Compos. Sci. 2018, 2(1), 16; https://doi.org/10.3390/jcs2010016 - 14 Mar 2018
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 4636
Abstract
The present work considers a computational study on laminated composite plates by using a linear theory for moderately thick structures. The present problem is solved numerically because analytical solutions cannot be found for such plates when lamination schemes are general and when all [...] Read more.
The present work considers a computational study on laminated composite plates by using a linear theory for moderately thick structures. The present problem is solved numerically because analytical solutions cannot be found for such plates when lamination schemes are general and when all the stiffness constants are activated at the constitutive level. Strong and weak formulations are used to solve the present problem and several comparisons are given. The strong form is dealt with using the so-called Strong Formulation Finite Element Method (SFEM) and the weak form is solved using commercial Finite Element (FE) packages. Both techniques are based on the domain decomposition technique according to geometric discontinuities. The SFEM solves the strong form inside each element and needs the implementation of kinematic and static inter-element conditions, whereas the FE solves the weak form and the continuity conditions among the elements are given in terms of displacements only. The results are reported in graphical form in terms of the first three natural frequencies. The accuracy and stability of SFEM and FE are thoroughly discussed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Composite Materials Applied to Structural Mechanics)
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17 pages, 3338 KiB  
Article
Assessing Static and Dynamic Response Variability due to Parametric Uncertainty on Fibre-Reinforced Composites
by Alda Carvalho, Tiago A.N. Silva and Maria A.R. Loja
J. Compos. Sci. 2018, 2(1), 6; https://doi.org/10.3390/jcs2010006 - 01 Feb 2018
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3479
Abstract
Composite structures are known for their ability to be tailored according to specific operating requisites. Therefore, when modelling these types of structures or components, it is important to account for their response variability, which is mainly due to significant parametric uncertainty compared to [...] Read more.
Composite structures are known for their ability to be tailored according to specific operating requisites. Therefore, when modelling these types of structures or components, it is important to account for their response variability, which is mainly due to significant parametric uncertainty compared to traditional materials. The possibility of manufacturing a material according to certain needs provides greater flexibility in design but it also introduces additional sources of uncertainty. Regardless of the origin of the material and/or geometrical variabilities, they will influence the structural responses. Therefore, it is important to anticipate and quantify these uncertainties as much as possible. With the present work, we intend to assess the influence of uncertain material and geometrical parameters on the responses of composite structures. Behind this characterization, linear static and free vibration analyses are performed considering that several material properties, the thickness of each layer and the fibre orientation angles are deemed to be uncertain. In this study, multivariable linear regression models are used to model the maximum transverse deflection and fundamental frequency for a given set of plates, aiming at characterizing the contribution of each modelling parameter to the explanation of the response variability. A set of simulations and numerical results are presented and discussed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Composite Materials Applied to Structural Mechanics)
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7982 KiB  
Article
Vibration Analysis of a Composite Concrete/GFRP Slab Induced by Human Activities
by Paulo Junges, Henriette Lebre La Rovere and Roberto Caldas de Andrade Pinto
J. Compos. Sci. 2017, 1(2), 11; https://doi.org/10.3390/jcs1020011 - 29 Sep 2017
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 4807
Abstract
Fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) materials have been introduced recently in the construction of new structural systems, particularly in footbridge systems. Innovative systems that combine concrete with FRP materials lead to lighter and more slender structures as compared to conventional reinforced concrete structures, which can [...] Read more.
Fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) materials have been introduced recently in the construction of new structural systems, particularly in footbridge systems. Innovative systems that combine concrete with FRP materials lead to lighter and more slender structures as compared to conventional reinforced concrete structures, which can bring about vibration problems. In this work, a vibration analysis of a composite slab subjected to human activities is performed, both experimentally and numerically. The slab is composed of a concrete top laid on glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) I-section pultruded profiles. In the experimental analysis, two prototypes of 0.80 m width and 4.00 m span, representing a slab strip, were subjected to walking and jumping by several volunteers. In the numerical analysis, the slab was modeled by finite elements under dynamic loadings that simulate walking and jumping. Both the experimental and numerical results have indicated that the dynamic behavior under human activities of the composite slab must be considered in the design. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Composite Materials Applied to Structural Mechanics)
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