Fracture analysis of vinyl ester composites cured under microwave conditions

Chan, Wooi Lieh (2006) Fracture analysis of vinyl ester composites cured under microwave conditions. [USQ Project]

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Abstract

The use of composites plays an important role in the fields of Mechanical and Civil
Engineering. The idea of using composite materials in the two afore mentioned fields
are no longer new. In the Fibre Composite Design and Development (FCDD),
University of Southern Queensland (USQ) many researches and experiments on new
lightweight materials and structures have been carried out. In the research, FCDD
found that the composites made from vinyl ester resins suffer considerable shrinkage
during hardening. With this issue in mind, research on the methods to decrease the
shrinkage of the composites had been carried out. Ku (2002) claimed that by having
vinyl ester composites cured under microwave conditions, such shrinkage can be
reduced. The material used was thirty three percent by weight flyash particulate
reinforced vinyl ester composite VE/FLYASH (33%). The purpose of this project is
to research, measure and compare the fracture toughness of vinyl ester composite
cured under ambient and microwave conditions by using the short bar test.
The specimens will then fractured by using the MTS 810 Material Testing Systems
and the value of fracture toughness was obtained through some calculations.
And finally the results will analyzed by using Latin Square, determine which
treatments were most effective in maintaining the fracture toughness while reducing
the shrinkage of vinyl ester composite, and by how much, and which are worthless, so
we can weight the economic alternatives.


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Item Type: USQ Project
Refereed: No
Item Status: Live Archive
Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: Historic - Faculty of Engineering and Surveying - Department of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering (Up to 30 Jun 2013)
Date Deposited: 11 Oct 2007 01:05
Last Modified: 02 Jul 2013 22:44
Uncontrolled Keywords: fibre composite design and development (FCDD); unsaturated polyesters (UP); VE/FLYASH; material testing system (MTS); MTS 810; polymers; resins; polyesters; expoxy; vinyl ester; microwave
Fields of Research (2008): 09 Engineering > 0905 Civil Engineering > 090503 Construction Materials
09 Engineering > 0912 Materials Engineering > 091202 Composite and Hybrid Materials
Fields of Research (2020): 40 ENGINEERING > 4005 Civil engineering > 400505 Construction materials
40 ENGINEERING > 4016 Materials engineering > 401602 Composite and hybrid materials
URI: https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/2405

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