Polymers

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11 pages, 3184 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Wear and Service Life of 3-D Printed Polymeric Gears

by Mert Safak Tunalioglu and Bekir Volkan Agca

Polymers 2022, 14(10), 2064; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym14102064 - 18 May 2022

Cited by 25 | Viewed by 4363

Abstract

Plastic gears are mostly used in the textile, food, and automotive industries due to their silent operation, corrosion resistance, and light and cheap advantages. Plastic gears are generally manufactured by injection molding or hobbing methods. The excess costs of the molds used to [...] Read more.

Plastic gears are mostly used in the textile, food, and automotive industries due to their silent operation, corrosion resistance, and light and cheap advantages. Plastic gears are generally manufactured by injection molding or hobbing methods. The excess costs of the molds used to produce parts in injection molding and the problems of wastes that occur during production in hobbing lead companies to additive manufacturing, which is an alternative application. In the additive manufacturing method, the desired amount of product is produced without the problem of waste. In this study, the wear resistance of plastic spur gears produced by the Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) method was determined theoretically. In order to determine the service life of gears, wear tests were carried out in the Forschungsstelle fur Zahnrader und Getriebebau (FZG) type test device at the same load and rotational speeds. polylactic acid (PLA), acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), and polyethylene terephthalate (PETG) thermoplastic polymer materials were used in the production of gears. When the gears rotate at the same load and rotational speeds, the most wear was observed in ABS, PLA, and PETG at the theoretically calculated wear depths. PETG is the most resistant material in terms of wear. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mechanical Properties of Polymers and Composites)

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16 pages, 6415 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Behavior Study of Commercial Polyurea under Monotonic, Rate Dependent, Cyclic, and Fatigue Tensile Loading for Potential Structural Applications

by Pawan Acharya, Hamed Ebrahimian and Mohamed A. Moustafa

Polymers 2022, 14(9), 1878; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym14091878 - 4 May 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2478

Abstract

Understanding material behavior is key to discovering innovative applications in any field. Regardless of the exciting mechanical properties of polyurea, there has been a limited effort in studying the use of polyurea for structural retrofit and strengthening applications. This study aims to understand [...] Read more.

Understanding material behavior is key to discovering innovative applications in any field. Regardless of the exciting mechanical properties of polyurea, there has been a limited effort in studying the use of polyurea for structural retrofit and strengthening applications. This study aims to understand the behavior of polyurea under different tensile loading conditions to provide critical information towards enabling the future use of polyurea in structural applications. Several standard coupons are tested under various tensile loading conditions to understand the mechanical behavior of eight different commercial polyureas. The study provides the full stress–strain characteristic curves that can be used for constitutive modeling purposes. The results show that polyurea has a wide range of properties from low strength flexible nature to high strength rigid nature. All tested polyureas displayed some level of rate dependency, i.e., ultimate strength is a function of loading rates. The high-strength polyureas tested only show slight rate dependency and good strength retention under cyclic and fatigue tensile loading, suggesting that polyureas have promising mechanical properties for potential structural applications. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mechanical Properties of Polymers and Composites)

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31 pages, 7904 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Interdependencies between Dynamic Response and Crack Growth in a 3D-Printed Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) Cantilever Beam under Thermo-Mechanical Loads

by Feiyang He, Muhammad Khan and Salem Aldosari

Polymers 2022, 14(5), 982; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym14050982 - 28 Feb 2022

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 2981

Abstract

Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) is the most commonly used thermoplastic printing material for fused deposition modelling (FDM). FDM ABS can be used in a variety of complex working environments. Notably, the thermo-mechanical coupled loads under complex operating conditions may lead to cracking and [...] Read more.

Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) is the most commonly used thermoplastic printing material for fused deposition modelling (FDM). FDM ABS can be used in a variety of complex working environments. Notably, the thermo-mechanical coupled loads under complex operating conditions may lead to cracking and ultimately catastrophic structural failure. Therefore, it is crucial to determine the crack depth and location before a structural fracture occurs. As these parameters affect the dynamic response of the structure, in this study, the fundamental frequency and displacement amplitude response of a cracked 3D-printed ABS cantilever beam in a thermal environment were analytically and experimentally investigated. The existing analytical model, specifically the torsional spring model used to calculate the fundamental frequency change to determine the crack depth and location was enhanced by the proposed Khan-He model. The analytical relationship between the displacement amplitude and crack was established in Khan-He model and validated for the first time for FDM ABS. The results show that a reduced crack depth and location farther from the fixed end correspond to a higher fundamental frequency and displacement amplitude. An elevated ambient temperature decreases the global elastic modulus of the cracked beam and results in a lower fundamental frequency. Moreover, a non-monotonic relationship exists between the displacement amplitude and ambient temperature. The displacement amplitude is more sensitive to the crack change than the fundamental frequency in the initial stages of crack growth. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mechanical Properties of Polymers and Composites)

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13 pages, 5626 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Mechanical Properties of GFRPs Exposed to Tensile, Compression and Tensile–Tensile Cyclic Tests

by Mariana Domnica Stanciu, Horațiu Teodorescu Drăghicescu and Ioan Călin Roșca

Polymers 2021, 13(6), 898; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym13060898 - 15 Mar 2021

Cited by 35 | Viewed by 4929

Abstract

Currently there are many applications for the use of composites reinforced with fiberglass mat and fabrics with polyester resin: automotive, aerospace, construction of wind turbines blades, sanitary ware, furniture, etc. The structures made of composites have a complex geometry, can be simultaneously subjected [...] Read more.

Currently there are many applications for the use of composites reinforced with fiberglass mat and fabrics with polyester resin: automotive, aerospace, construction of wind turbines blades, sanitary ware, furniture, etc. The structures made of composites have a complex geometry, can be simultaneously subjected to tensile–compression, shear, bending and torsion. In this paper we analyzed the mechanical properties of a polyester composite material reinforced with glass fiber (denoted GFRP) of which were carried out two types of samples: The former contains four layers of plain fabric (GFRP-RT500) and the second type contains three layers of chopped strand mat (GFRP-MAT450). The samples were subjected to tensile, compression and tensile–tensile cyclic loading. The results highlight the differences between the two types of GFRP in terms of initial elastic modulus, post yield stiffness and viscoelastic behavior under cyclic loading. Thus, it was observed that the value of the modulus of elasticity and the value of ultimate tensile stress are approximately twice higher in the case of GFRP-RT500 than for the composite reinforced with short fibers type GFRP-MAT450. The tensile–tensile cyclic test highlights that the short glass fiber-reinforced composite broke after the first stress cycle, compared to the fabric-reinforced composite in which rupture occurred after 15 stress cycles. The elasticity modulus of GFRP-RT500 decreased by 13% for the applied loading with the speed of 1 mm/min and by 15% for a loading speed of 20 mm/min. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mechanical Properties of Polymers and Composites)

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21 pages, 65073 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Dynamic Impact Surface Damage Analysis of 3D Woven Para-Aramid Armour Panels Using NDI Technique

by Mulat Alubel Abtew, Francois Boussu, Pascal Bruniaux and Yan Hong

Polymers 2021, 13(6), 877; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym13060877 - 12 Mar 2021

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2426

Abstract

The effects of the yarn composition system inside 3D woven high-performance textiles are not well investigated and understood against their final ballistic impact behaviour. The current study aims to examine the ballistic impact performances of armour panels made of different 3D woven fabric [...] Read more.

The effects of the yarn composition system inside 3D woven high-performance textiles are not well investigated and understood against their final ballistic impact behaviour. The current study aims to examine the ballistic impact performances of armour panels made of different 3D woven fabric variants through postmortem observations. Four high-performance five-layer 3D woven fabric variants were engineered based on their different warp yarn compositions but similar area density. A 50 × 50 cm² armour system of each variant, which comprises eight nonbonded but aligned panels, namely, 3D-40-8/0 (or 8/0), 3D-40-8/4 (or 8/4), 3D-40-8/8 (or 8/8) and 3D-40-4/8 (or 4/8), were prepared and moulded to resemble female frontal morphology. The armour systems were then tested with nonperforation ballistic impacts according to the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) 0101.06 standard Level-IIIA. Two high-speed cameras were used to capture the event throughout the test. Nondestructive investigation (NDI) using optical microscopic and stereoscopic 3D digital images were employed for the analysis. The armour panels made of the 8/0 and 4/8 fabric variants were perforated, whereas the armour made of the 8/8 and 8/4 fabric variants showed no perforation. Besides, the armour made of the 8/4 fabric variant revealed higher local and global surface displacements than the other armours. The current research findings are useful for further engineering of 3D woven fabric for seamless women’s impact protective clothing. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mechanical Properties of Polymers and Composites)

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13 pages, 13552 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Compressive Behaviour of Lattice Structures Manufactured by Polyjet Technologies

by Camil Lancea, Ian Campbell, Lucia-Antoneta Chicos and Sebastian-Marian Zaharia

Polymers 2020, 12(12), 2767; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym12122767 - 24 Nov 2020

Cited by 14 | Viewed by 2800

Abstract

Additive manufacturing (AM) techniques can help to reduce the time and cost for manufacturing complex shaped parts. The main goal of this research was to determine the best strength structure of six different types of lattice cells, manufactured using the Poly Jet AM [...] Read more.

Additive manufacturing (AM) techniques can help to reduce the time and cost for manufacturing complex shaped parts. The main goal of this research was to determine the best strength structure of six different types of lattice cells, manufactured using the Poly Jet AM technology. In order to perform the tests, six samples with the same structure were created for each lattice type. For testing the samples in compression, an electromechanical test machine was used. finite element analysis (FEA) analysis was used in order to determine the area where the greatest stresses occured and to estimate the maximal compressive strength. The strongest structure was determined by obtaining the maximal compressive strength. This was calculated in two ways: as a ratio between the maximal supported force and the mass of the sample (N/g) and as a ratio between the maximal supported force and the critical section of the sample (MPa). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mechanical Properties of Polymers and Composites)

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17 pages, 27326 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Ultrafine and High-Strength Silk Fibers Secreted by Bimolter Silkworms

by Kaiyu Guo, Xiaolu Zhang, Zhaoming Dong, Yuhui Ni, Yuqing Chen, Yan Zhang, Haoyun Li, Qingyou Xia and Ping Zhao

Polymers 2020, 12(11), 2537; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym12112537 - 30 Oct 2020

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 2962

Abstract

Ultrafine fibers are widely employed because of their lightness, softness, and warmth retention. Although silkworm silk is one of the most applied natural silks, it is coarse and difficult to transform into ultrafine fibers. Thus, to obtain ultrafine high-performance silk fibers, we employed [...] Read more.

Ultrafine fibers are widely employed because of their lightness, softness, and warmth retention. Although silkworm silk is one of the most applied natural silks, it is coarse and difficult to transform into ultrafine fibers. Thus, to obtain ultrafine high-performance silk fibers, we employed anti-juvenile hormones in this study to induce bimolter silkworms. We found that the bimolter cocoons were composed of densely packed thin fibers and small apertures, wherein the silk diameter was 54.9% less than that of trimolter silk. Further analysis revealed that the bimolter silk was cleaner and lighter than the control silk. In addition, it was stronger (739 MPa versus 497 MPa) and more stiffness (i.e., a higher Young’s modulus) than the trimolter silk. FTIR and X-ray diffraction results revealed that the excellent mechanical properties of bimolter silk can be attributed to the higher β-sheet content and crystallinity. Chitin staining of the anterior silk gland suggested that the lumen is narrower in bimolters, which may lead to the formation of greater numbers of β-sheet structures in the silk. Therefore, this study reveals the relationship between the structures and mechanical properties of bimolter silk and provides a valuable reference for producing high-strength and ultrafine silk fibers. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mechanical Properties of Polymers and Composites)

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15 pages, 8302 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Dynamic Constitutive Model of Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE): Considering the Temperature and Strain Rate Effects

by Kebin Zhang, Wenbin Li, Yu Zheng, Wenjin Yao and Changfang Zhao

Polymers 2020, 12(7), 1561; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym12071561 - 14 Jul 2020

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 3823

Abstract

The temperature and strain rate significantly affect the ballistic performance of UHMWPE, but the deformation of UHMWPE under thermo-mechanical coupling has been rarely studied. To investigate the influences of the temperature and the strain rate on the mechanical properties of UHMWPE, a Split [...] Read more.

The temperature and strain rate significantly affect the ballistic performance of UHMWPE, but the deformation of UHMWPE under thermo-mechanical coupling has been rarely studied. To investigate the influences of the temperature and the strain rate on the mechanical properties of UHMWPE, a Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar (SHPB) apparatus was used to conduct uniaxial compression experiments on UHMWPE. The stress–strain curves of UHMWPE were obtained at temperatures of 20–100 °C and strain rates of 1300–4300 s⁻¹. Based on the experimental results, the UHMWPE belongs to viscoelastic–plastic material, and a hardening effect occurs once UHMWPE enters the plastic zone. By comparing the stress–strain curves at different temperatures and strain rates, it was found that UHMWPE exhibits strain rate strengthening and temperature softening effects. By modifying the Sherwood–Frost model, a constitutive model was established to describe the dynamic mechanical properties of UHMWPE at different temperatures. The results calculated using the constitutive model were in good agreement with the experimental data. This study provides a reference for the design of UHMWPE as a ballistic-resistant material. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mechanical Properties of Polymers and Composites)

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Review

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28 pages, 8977 KiB

Open AccessReview

Fused Filament Fabrication of Polymers and Continuous Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composites: Advances in Structure Optimization and Health Monitoring

by Fatemeh Mashayekhi, Julien Bardon, Vincent Berthé, Henri Perrin, Stephan Westermann and Frédéric Addiego

Polymers 2021, 13(5), 789; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym13050789 - 4 Mar 2021

Cited by 28 | Viewed by 6305

Abstract

3D printed neat thermoplastic polymers (TPs) and continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites (CFRTPCs) by fused filament fabrication (FFF) are becoming attractive materials for numerous applications. However, the structure of these materials exhibits interfaces at different scales, engendering non-optimal mechanical properties. The first part of [...] Read more.

3D printed neat thermoplastic polymers (TPs) and continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites (CFRTPCs) by fused filament fabrication (FFF) are becoming attractive materials for numerous applications. However, the structure of these materials exhibits interfaces at different scales, engendering non-optimal mechanical properties. The first part of the review presents a description of these interfaces and highlights the different strategies to improve interfacial bonding. The actual knowledge on the structural aspects of the thermoplastic matrix is also summarized in this contribution with a focus on crystallization and orientation. The research to be tackled to further improve the structural properties of the 3D printed materials is identified. The second part of the review provides an overview of structural health monitoring technologies relying on the use of fiber Bragg grating sensors, strain gauge sensors and self-sensing. After a brief discussion on these three technologies, the needed research to further stimulate the development of FFF is identified. Finally, in the third part of this contribution the technology landscape of FFF processes for CFRTPCs is provided, including the future trends. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mechanical Properties of Polymers and Composites)

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