New optimization approach helps design lighter carbon fiber composite materials
New design approach for manufacturing carbon fibers with optimized orientation and thickness achieves weight reduction in fiber reinforced plastics
2021-05-24
(Press-News.org) Carbon is vital to the existence of all living organisms, since it forms the basis of all organic molecules that, in turn, form the basis of all living beings. While that alone is pretty impressive, it has recently found surprisingly novel applications in disciplines such as aerospace and civil engineering with the development of carbon fibers that are stronger, stiffer, and lighter than steel. Consequently, carbon fibers have taken over steel in high-performance products like aircrafts, racecars, and sports equipment.
Carbon fibers are usually combined with other materials to form a composite. One such composite material is the carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP), which is well-known for its tensile strength, rigidity, and high strength-to-weight ratio. Owing to its high demand, researchers have carried out several studies to improve the strength of CFRPs, and most of these have focused on a particular technique called "fiber-steered design," which optimizes fiber orientation to enhance strength.
However, the fiber-steered design approach is not without its drawbacks. "Fiber-steered design only optimizes orientation and keeps the thickness of the fibers fixed, preventing full utilization of the mechanical properties of CFRP. A weight reduction approach, which allows optimization of fiber thickness as well, has been rarely considered," explains Dr. Ryosuke Matsuzaki from Tokyo University of Science (TUS), Japan, whose research is focused on composite materials.
Against this backdrop, Dr. Matsuzaki--along with his colleagues at TUS, Yuto Mori and Naoya Kumekawa--proposed a new design method for optimizing the fiber orientation and thickness simultaneously depending on the location in the composite structure, which allowed them to reduce the weight of the CFRP compared to that of a constant thickness linear lamination model without compromising its strength. Their findings can be read in a new study published in Composite Structures.
Their method consisted of three steps: the preparatory, iterative, and modification processes. In the preparatory process, an initial analysis was performed using the finite element method (FEM) to determine the number of layers, enabling a qualitative weight evaluation by a linear lamination model and a fiber-steered design with a thickness variation model. The iterative process was used to determine the fiber orientation by the principal stress direction and iteratively calculate the thickness using "maximum stress theory". Finally, the modification process was used to make modifications accounting for manufacturability by first creating a reference "base fiber bundle" in a region requiring strength improvement and then determining the final orientation and thickness by arranging the fiber bundles such that they spread on both sides of the reference bundle.
The method of simultaneous optimization led to a weight reduction greater than 5% while enabling higher load transfer efficiency than that achieved with fiber orientation alone.
The researchers are excited by these results and look forward to the future implementation of their method for further weight reduction of conventional CFRP parts. "Our design method goes beyond the conventional wisdom of composite design, making for lighter aircraft and automobiles, which can contribute to energy conservation and reduction of CO2 emissions," observes Dr. Matsuzaki.
INFORMATION:
About The Tokyo University of Science
Tokyo University of Science (TUS) is a well-known and respected university, and the largest science-specialized private research university in Japan, with four campuses in central Tokyo and its suburbs and in Hokkaido. Established in 1881, the university has continually contributed to Japan's development in science through inculcating the love for science in researchers, technicians, and educators.
With a mission of "Creating science and technology for the harmonious development of nature, human beings, and society", TUS has undertaken a wide range of research from basic to applied science. TUS has embraced a multidisciplinary approach to research and undertaken intensive study in some of today's most vital fields. TUS is a meritocracy where the best in science is recognized and nurtured. It is the only private university in Japan that has produced a Nobel Prize winner and the only private university in Asia to produce Nobel Prize winners within the natural sciences field.
Website: https://www.tus.ac.jp/en/mediarelations/
About Dr. Ryosuke Matsuzaki from Tokyo University of Science
Ryosuke Matsuzaki is an associate professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Tokyo University of Science (TUS), Japan. He received his doctoral degree from Tokyo Institute of Technology Graduate School in 2007 and joined TUS as a junior associate professor in 2011. His research area is mechanics of materials, focusing on composite materials, smart materials and structure, and functional materials. He has published 161 papers with over 1900 citations and has co-authored 8 books. For more information, visit: https://www.tus.ac.jp/en/fac/p/index.php?655b
Funding information
This work was supported by Council for Science, Technology and Innovation (CSTI), Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program (SIP), "Materials Integration" for Revolutionary Design System of Structural Materials (Funding agency: JST).
[Attachments] See images for this press release:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2021-05-24
Scientists studying a special kind of semimetals have found a material with an unusually pristine nature that could be crucial for developing powerful new quantum technologies and discovering new phases of matter.
In an open access paper published in Science Advances, Johns Hopkins physicists and colleagues at Rice University, the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien), and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), present experimental evidence of naturally occurring quantum criticality in a material.
Criticality is the point at which a material hovers between two phases--like the slushy transition between water and ice--without ever settling. Useful materials often exploit this point. For example, air conditioners use compressors to change refrigerant ...
2021-05-24
In order to understand foodways and subsistence strategies of humans in the past, as well as distributions of ancient animal species, it is critical for archaeologists to accurately identify animal taxa in archaeological sites. Many sites across sub-Saharan Africa have fragmented and poorly preserved animal bones, leaving the majority of specimens unidentifiable. Sub-Saharan Africa is also home to the greatest diversity of bovids on Earth, including African buffalo, wildebeest, eland, and duikers, as well as domestic sheep, goat, and cattle. The sheer number of osteologically similar animals in Africa presents a major challenge for identifying animal bones.
During the past decade, archaeologists have increasingly used a bone ...
2021-05-24
Des Plaines, IL - For acute mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), there were no differences in recovery or health care utilization outcomes with prescribed early light exercise compared to standard care. These are the results of a study titled A randomized trial comparing prescribed light exercise to standard management for emergency department patients with acute mild traumatic brain injury, to be published in the May issue of Academic Emergency Medicine (AEM) journal, a peer-reviewed journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM).
Findings of the study suggest that early light exercise may be encouraged as tolerated at emergency department discharge following mTBI, but this guidance is not sufficient ...
2021-05-24
HOUSTON ? Several Phase II clinical trials conducted by researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center show promising results for patients with melanoma, breast cancer, HER2-positive tumors and ovarian cancer. The results of these studies, which will be presented at the virtual 2021 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, highlight new advances in drug therapy research to improve patient outcomes.
Combination therapy of nivolumab and relatlimab before and after surgery is effective against melanoma (Abstract #9502)
In a Phase II study, MD Anderson researchers showed that a regimen of neoadjuvant and ...
2021-05-24
Iahikawa, Japan - Humans benefit from playing games more than some might realize. Games can be a relaxed approach to learning or honing our problem-solving skills while relieving stress. However, game playing generally carries a considerable amount of decision-making, involving mathematical and statistical considerations that we make to decide on what we think is the best move. Thus, games showcase many of the impressive faculties and inner workings of the human brain, which in turns makes them a great testbed and playground for research on artificial intelligence (AI).
One aspect common to many games is decision making based on uncertain information about current and potential ...
2021-05-24
Months after recovering from mild cases of COVID-19, people still have immune cells in their body pumping out antibodies against the virus that causes COVID-19, according to a study from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Such cells could persist for a lifetime, churning out antibodies all the while.
The findings, published May 24 in the journal Nature, suggest that mild cases of COVID-19 leave those infected with lasting antibody protection and that repeated bouts of illness are likely to be uncommon.
"Last fall, there were reports that antibodies wane quickly after infection with the virus that causes COVID-19, and mainstream media interpreted that to mean that immunity was not long-lived," said senior author Ali Ellebedy, PhD, an associate professor ...
2021-05-24
A critical process in the infection cycle of viruses has been revealed for the first time in dynamic detail using pioneering plant-based technology.
Evidence about the process of virus maturation revealed in the research could help us develop new methods for treating viral infections.
Maturation plays a critical role for all animal and bacterial viruses and is required to produce infectious virions or particles. Though the outlines of the process have been determined for many groups of viruses, detailed mechanistic studies have not been reported.
To provide the first detailed mechanistic study of maturation, Roger Castells-Graells, ...
2021-05-24
The research team led by Prof. DU Pingwu from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) first successfully synthesized an all-phenylene bismacrocycle (bis- means two) with Siamese-twin structure and used fullerene as guest molecules to assemble a peanut-shaped supramolecular complex. This study was published in Angewandte Chemie.
As a new type of carbon material, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have attracted widespread attention because of their outstanding mechanical and photophysical properties. However, the synthesis of CNTs or CNTs fragments with selective simple structure is still a challenge.
This study reported a conjugated highly strained all-phenylene Siamese-twin bismacrocycle, SCPP[10]. Two phenylene nanorings, [10]CPP, conjoined ...
2021-05-24
Research co-led by Newcastle University has shed new light on important microscopic scale interactions between algae and bacteria predicated on the mutually beneficial exchange of nutrients.
The research was carried out at the University of Cambridge and the Nordsim laboratory at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm by Dr Hannah Laeverenz Schlogelhofer, now at the University of Exeter, and a team led by Dr Ottavio Croze, of Newcastle University's School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics.
They have used an advanced high-spatial resolution isotope mapping technique called 'SIMS' (secondary ion mass spectrometry) to chart for the first time how long it takes for labelled carbon produced by microalgae to be transferred ...
2021-05-24
A supersensitised brain connection has been identified in people who suffer from misophonia, an extreme reaction to "trigger" sounds.
For the first time, researchers led by Newcastle University, have discovered increased connectivity in the brain between the auditory cortex and the motor control areas related to the face, mouth and throat.
Publishing today, in the Journal of Neuroscience, lead author Dr Sukhbinder Kumar, Newcastle University Research Fellow in the Biosciences Institute said: "Our findings indicate that for people with misophonia there is abnormal communication between the auditory and motor ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] New optimization approach helps design lighter carbon fiber composite materials
New design approach for manufacturing carbon fibers with optimized orientation and thickness achieves weight reduction in fiber reinforced plastics