Bioabsorbable phosphate glass fibre/polymer composites are being investigated as alternatives to commonly used metal alloy-based bone fracture fixation devices. According to Knowles [1], these ‘Third Generation’ implants remain in the body for the short term necessary for mechanical stabilisation of tissue. In addition the degradation products of the bioabsorbable implants perform an active fun...

Raw and laccase-treated kenaf fibre (KF) were used individually to reinforce recycled polypropylene (RPP) using extrusion and injection moulding. Laccase was used to modify the surface of the fibre to improve the compatibility between fibre and matrix. Enzyme concentration and soaking time were considered as the treatment parameters. Maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene (MAPP) was used with a...

In this study three types of Fibre reinforced composites Glassfibre/epoxy, Glassfibre/vinylester and Glassfibre/polyester resin are fabricated using Hand lay-up process and compacted in a Hotpress. The specimens of these three types of laminates were studied for moisture diffusion at two elevated hotwater temperatures of 90C and 60C to study the kinetics by computing the Diffusion coefficients ...

A methodology for the measurement of high field strain and polarisation responses of fine scale piezoelectric fibres is presented. Using analytical models, the response of the fibres is extracted from measurements made on 1–3 composites. Analytical modelling shows that composites with a high fibre volume fraction are desirable for accurate prediction of the fibres response. Poor model response ...

A polycyclic fatigue damage model for short glass fibre reinforced thermoplastics is developed and implemented into ABAQUS FE code using UMAT subroutine. The MNL model is introduced here in terms of damage rates: ( ) ) ( 2 0 1 2 0 2 1 2 1 1 ) ( ) ( N ij ij ij ij ij ij ij ij ij ij ij e E E N d d λ β ε γ ε β β α − −       +       + = ∂ ∂ = & (1) Where N is the number of cycles. αij, β...

The ultimate tensile behaviour of fibre-reinforced cementitious composites is closely related to its failure mechanisms which in turn are dependent on reinforcement parameters such as fibre characteristics and the fibre/matrix interface properties. Based on the direct tensile tests of mortar specimens reinforced with various synthetic fibres, this paper attempts to explain such relationships an...

...............................................................................................................III DISSERTATION....................................................................................................... VII DIVISION OF WORK BETWEEN AUTHORS .......................................................... IX INTRODUCTION..........................................................

Part I of this three-part paper describes the various steps that led to the development of a class of high performance short steel fibre-reinforced cementitious composites (HPFRCCs) which has been patented under the trade name CARDIFRC1. This class of materials generally contains no coarse aggregates and is characterised by high tensile/ flexural strength and high toughness. A method is propose...

The thermal expansion behaviour of silicon carbide (SCS-2) fibre reinforced 6061 aluminium matrix composite subjected to the influenced thermal mechanical cycling (TMC) process were investigated. The thermal stress has important effect on the longitudinal thermal expansion coefficient of the composites. The present paper used experimental data of the thermal expansion behaviour of a SiC/Al comp...

The main advantage of multidirectionally reinforced composites is the freedom to orient selected fiber types and hence derives the benefits of varying fibre volume fractions and there by accommodate the design loads of the final structure of composites. This technology provides the means to produce tailored composites with desired properties. Due to the high level of fibre integrity with throug...