The purpose of this research is to simulate and test nanomaterial reinforced composites for potential applications in Army vehicles, especially for improved ballistic and blast protection. The resultant simulation and design system can address major concerns in functional requirements of nanomaterials in Army’s ground vehicles such as strength, durability, ballistic and blast impact resistance....

Conventionally, cast iron is the material used for high speed machine tool structures. As an alternate material to improve the structural properties, composite materials are being used, which are known to exhibit excellent thermal and mechanical properties. While selecting an alternate material, thermal conductivity is an important thermo physical property of the material that should be studied...

The curing reaction of a commercial cold-curing structural epoxy resin, specifically formulated for civil engineering applications, was analyzed by thermal analysis as a function of the curing time and the sample thickness. Original and remarkable results regarding the effects of curing time on the glass transition temperature and on the residual heat of reaction of the cold-cured epoxy were ob...

Epoxy resins, widely used as adhesives or coatings in construction, boat and aeroplane building, plastic and other industries and trades (1–3), are a frequent cause of occupational allergic contact dermatitis (1–6). Epoxy resin based on diglycidylether of bisphenol A is the main allergen responsible but sensitization can also develop to other components, including the hardeners and reactive dil...

Extrusion freeform fabrication has been used to make bars of fiber-reinforced epoxidized soybean oil (ESO)/epoxy resin. Freeform fabrication methods build materials by the repetitive addition of thin layers. The mixture of epoxidized soybean oil (ESO) and epoxy resin are modified with a gelling agent to solidify the materials until curing occurs. The high strength and stiffness composites are f...

Coupling of fiber posts to composites is hampered by absence of chemical union between epoxy resins and methacrylate-based resins. This study examined a clinically feasible protocol for creating micromechanical retention on the surface of fiber posts, using hydrogen peroxide etching to remove the surface layer of epoxy resin. This was followed by silanization of the exposed quartz fibers to enh...

In this study, acrylated soybean oil (AESO) was used as modifying agent for DGEBF-type epoxy resin (ER). AESO was used as a co-matrix in 50 wt % with ER. Composites with ecofriendly natural fillers-banana bark and seashell were prepared. MNA was used as a hardener. Effect of banana peel (BP) and seashell (SSh) fillers on mechanical properties, such as tensile strength, elongation at break, and ...

Epoxidized natural rubber fibers (ERFs) are developed through one-step electrospinning and directly deposited into epoxy resins without collecting and distributing of fibers. The shape of ERFs shows rough surface due to different evaporation rate of solvent mixture consisting of chloroform and dichloromethane and the average diameter of ERFs is 6.2 µm. The increase of ERFs loading from 0 to 20 ...

Reducing basis weight could lead to huge savings of forest resources as well as energy consumption and waste treatment in the papermaking process. However, low basis weight paper generally lacks normal strength and stiffness. The lower the basis weight of the paper, the more important is surface sizing. Highly cross-linked cured epoxy resin, due to its epoxy group and phenyl group, has gained s...

This paper presents the results of an initial investigation into the potential for monitoring water absorption and chemical degradation in epoxy matrix composites using evanescent wave spectroscopy. While conventional silica glasses have too low a refractive index and too short an IR transmission window to be useful as unclad sensing elements in most resin systems, chalcogenide glasses offer su...