A laminated composite plate element with an interface description is developed using the finite element approach to investigate the bending performance of two-layer cross-ply laminated composite plates in presence of a diagonally perturbed localized interfacial degeneration between laminae. The stiffness of the laminate is expressed through the assembly of the stiffnesses of lamina sub-elements...

New methods are needed that can predict the clinical failure of dental restorations that primarily rely on dentin bonding. Existing methods have shortcomings, e.g. severe deviation in the actual stress distribution from theory and a large standard deviation in the measured bond strength. We introduce here a novel test specimen by examining an endodontic model for dentin bonding. Specifically, w...

Matrix resins of carbon fiber-epoxy composites with different numbers of epoxy functional groups were prepared, and their properties were compared to optimize the matrix resin composition. To understand the bonding strengths between the carbon fiber and epoxy resins in monofilaments and micro-sized resin beads, the interfacial shear strength (IFSS) was measured using the microdroplet technique....

The generation and the subsequent evolution of dynamic failure events in homogeneous layered materials that occur within microseconds after impact were investigated experimentally. Tested configurations include three-layer and two-layer, bonded Homalite specimens featuring different bonding strengths. High-speed photography and dynamic photoelasticity were utilized to study the nature, sequence...

We have performed density functional calculations to investigate the adhesion and electronic structure at interfaces between Al and the refractory transition metal nitrides/carbides VN and VC in order to understand the significance of the ceramic’s metalloid component upon interfacial properties. We find that for both systems the preferred bonding site places the metal interfacial atoms above t...

Inspired by mammalian skins, soft hybrids integrating the merits of elastomers and hydrogels have potential applications in diverse areas including stretchable and bio-integrated electronics, microfluidics, tissue engineering, soft robotics and biomedical devices. However, existing hydrogel-elastomer hybrids have limitations such as weak interfacial bonding, low robustness and difficulties in p...

Mussel (Mytilus californianus) adhesion to marine surfaces involves an intricate and adaptive synergy of molecules and spatio-temporal processes. Although the molecules, such as mussel foot proteins (mfps), are well characterized, deposition details remain vague and speculative. Developing methods for the precise surveillance of conditions that apply during mfp deposition would aid both in unde...

Chemical functionalization of silicon oxide (SiO(2)) surfaces with silane molecules is an important technique for a variety of device and sensor applications. Quality control of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) is difficult to achieve because of the lack of a direct measure for newly formed interfacial Si-O bonds. Herein we report a sensitive measure of the bonding interface between the SAM and...

In many animals, the bonding of tendon and cartilage to bone is extremely tough (for example, interfacial toughness ∼800 J m(-2); refs ,), yet such tough interfaces have not been achieved between synthetic hydrogels and non-porous surfaces of engineered solids. Here, we report a strategy to design tough transparent and conductive bonding of synthetic hydrogels containing 90% water to non-porous...

Using a first-principles Green’s function technique, we study spin-dependent tunneling in two model realizations of 111 fcc Co/Al2O3/Co tunnel junctions assuming O-terminated crystalline epitaxy in the corundum structure. For the first model, which includes 3 O atoms at the interface, the tunneling current is polarized negatively, just as for the clean Co surface. The second model contains addi...