In this work the fracture toughness of epoxy resin has been improved through the addition of low loading of single part and hybrid nanofiller materials. Functionalised multi-walled carbon nanotubes (f-MWCNTs) was used as single filler, increased the critical strain energy release rate, GIC, by 57% compared to the neat epoxy, at only 0.1 wt% filler content. Importantly, no degradation in the ten...

The terrestrial slug Arion subfuscus produces a defensive secretion that is sticky and tough, despite being a dilute gel. It is unusual in having high stiffness for a gel, yet retaining the high extensibility typical of mucus. In tensile tests, it sustains an average peak stress of 101 kPa, and fails at an average strain of 9.5. This gives the gel toughness; it requires much greater strain ener...

Lightweight advanced high strength steels (AHSS) with aluminum contents between 4 and 12 weight percent have been the subject of intense interest in the last decade because of an excellent combination of high strain rate toughness coupled with up to a 17% reduction in density. Fully austenitic cast steels with a nominal composition of Fe-30%Mn-9%Al-0.9%C are almost 15% less dense than quenched ...

To increase the toughness of a metallic glass with the nominal composition Zr57Nb5Al10Cu15.4Ni12.6, it was used as the matrix in particulate composites reinforced with W, WC, Ta, and SiC. The composites were tested in compression and tension experiments. Compressive strain to failure increased by more than 300% compared with the unreinforced Zr57Nb5Al10Cu15.4Ni12.6, and energy to break of the t...

Hydrogels' applications are usually limited by their weak mechanical properties. Despite recent great progress in developing tough hydrogels, it is still challenging to achieve high values of , toughness and modulus all together in synthetic hydrogels. In this paper, we designed highly stretchable, tough, yet stiff hydrogel composites via a combination of nanoscale hybrid crosslinking and macro...

7bis report presents a procedure for estimating the current condition and residual life of -safety-related cast stainless steel components in light wa racos (LWRs). The procedure accounts for loss of fractur toughness caused by hrmal embrittlement and includes the folloing: a review ofdesign and fabrication records, nserice inspection recods, and operating history a fracture mechanics evaluatio...

mechanical properties of grain are influenced by various factors including soil nutrients and grain moisture content at harvest time. in order to reduce mechanical losses, the design of different processing operations should be performed based on the knowledge of factors influencing the mechanical properties. the effects of urea fertilization methods and grain moisture content at harvest time o...

Toughness is a complex material characteristic that is viewed from multiple aspects and is influenced by numerous factors. It is very important to have ability to assess toughness, i.e. to determine ductile or brittle material behaviour at any specific time. Beside total impact energy obtained at Charpy instrumented pendulum, the use of additional parameters such as lateral extension measuremen...

To date, high compressive ductility and energy absorption have been achieved in amorphous metal foams based on high-toughness Pdand Zr-based metallic glasses and are known to result from two extrinsic toughening mechanisms: bending of struts and shear band arrest by pores. We study here a syntactic amorphous metallic foam produced by infiltration of a bed of hollow crystalline iron spheres with...

The development of polymers that can spontaneously repair themselves after mechanical damage would significantly improve the safety, lifetime, energy efficiency and environmental impact of man-made materials. Most approaches to self-healing materials require the input of external energy, healing agents, solvent or plasticizer. Despite intense research in this area, the synthesis of a stiff mate...