Stitched composite materials are emerging as a promising material due to their high interlaminar strength,combined performance and light weight.The mechanical properties of stitch yarns are very essential for stitched composite structures.In this study,the tensile behaviors of the twisted fiber yarn in stitched composites were investigated experimentally,analytically and numerically.Two kinds of cross-sectional area of twisted yarn are proposed and discussed.The paper presents an intersecting circle model to describe the cross-section of twisted fiber yarns,and a physics-based theoretical model to predict the effective tensile moduli.The numerical models take into account the cross-sectional characteristic and the twist architecture.The investigation shows that:the sum of each fiber area should be used for experimental analysis;and the crosssectional area surrounded by the yarn profile should be used for theoretical predictions and finite element(FE)simulations.The relative errors of the prediction method and the FE simulation are less than 2%and 1%,respectively.The friction between the fibers is derived,and the effect of friction on mechanical properties is discussed.The investigation method will serve as a fundamental component of twisted fiber bundle/yarn analysis.
Xuefeng TENGDuoqi SHIXin JINGShuangqi LYUXiaoguang YANG
Ceramic fiber reinforced silica aerogel composites are novel insulation materials in the thermal protection field for hypersonic vehicles. Before the aerogel composites are applied in load-bearing structures, it is necessary to investigate their mechanical properties including load-bearing and deformation recovery capabilities. High temperature from service conditions will have important effects on the mechanical properties of thermal protection materials. In this paper, compression tests including loading and unloading stages were conducted for ceramic fiber reinforced silica aerogel composites at room temperature and elevated temperatures(300℃, 600℃ and 900℃). Influences of thermal exposure to high temperature and high temperature service environment on the compression property and deformation recovery were both investigated. Scanning electron microscopy(SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy(FT-IR) and X-ray diffraction(XRD) were applied to help understand the mechanisms of mechanical property variations. The experimental results show that the compression modulus and strength both increase with the increasing thermal exposure temperature and testing temperature,but the deformation recovery capability decreases. The micro structure changes caused by thermal sintering are considered as the main reason for the property variations.Viscous flow and matter transport due to high temperature resulted in the fusion of aerogel particles. This made the particle skeleton thicker and stronger, which led to higher stiffness and strength of the composites. However, matrix cracks induced by the formation and fracture of larger pores made unrecoverable deformation more serious. In the tests at elevated temperatures,the aggregation of aerogel particles in a fused state got more severe because of the addition of mechanical load. As a result, the degradation of deformation recovery capability became more significant.
This paper is focused on developing suitable methodology for predicting creep characteristics （i.e., the minimum creep strain rate, stress rupture life and time to a specified creep strain） of typical Ni-based directionally solidified （DS） and single-crystal （SC） superalloys. A modem method with high accuracy on simulating wide ranging creep properties was fully validated by a sufficient amount of experimental data, which was then developed to model anisotropic creep characteristics by introducing a simple orientation factor defined by the ultimate tensile strength （UTS）. Physical confidence on this methodology is provided by the well-predicted transitions of creep defor- mation mechanisms. Meanwhile, this method was further adopted to innovatively evaluate the creep properties of different materials from a relative perspective.
Experimental investigation and numerical modeling on elasto-plastic notch-root stress/strain distributions under monotonic loadings of both the Ni-based directionally solidified(DS)superalloy and Titanium alloy were carried out simultaneously.For measuring inhomogeneous deformation fields at notch roots,an optical-numerical full-field surface deformation measurement system was developed based on the digital image correlation(DIC)method.The obtained strain distributions were then verified with reasonable accuracy by finite element simulation,where an anisotropic elastic-viscoplastic constitutive model was developed for DS superalloy and a simple isotropic stress-strain relationship was adopted for Titanium alloy.Meanwhile,factors affecting elasto-plastic notch-root stress/strain distributions were systematically investigated numerically,where the emphasis was placed on temperature,loading stress rate,sample shape,anisotropy and notch features.The results show that stress/strain behavior at notch root is significantly affected by the mentioned factors,which are concretely embodied in the distribution of tensile stress/strain,equivalent stress and accumulative equivalent plastic strain.
Electron beam welding（EBW） has been widely used in the manufacture of titanium alloy welded blisk for aircraft engines. Based on fatigue crack growth tests on titanium alloy electron beam welding（EBW） joints, mechanism of fracture was investigated under scanning electron microscope（SEM）. The results show that fatigue crack growth rate increases as the experimental load increases under the same stress ratio and stress intensity factor range. At the beginning of crack growth, the extension mechanism of fatigue crack is the typical mechanism of cleavage fracture. In the steady extention stage, crack extends along the weld seam firstly.Then, crack growth direction changes to extend along the base metal. The extension mechanism of fatigue crack in the weld seam is the main mechanism of cleavage fracture and the extension mechanism of fatigue crack in the base metal is the main extension mechanism of fatigue band. In the instantaneous fracture stage, the extension mechanism of fatigue crack is the typical dimple-type static fracture mechanism.Crack growth was simulated by conventional finite element method and extended finite element method.
