Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) is one of the most powerful tools to study the behavior of plastic and polymer composite materials. Unfortunately, as observed in literature and from author's experiences, there are discrepancies in the measurement of storage modulus using DMA, particularly for high modulus materials like carbon fiber composites. This is because of lack of guidelines for DMA testing of materials. This paper systematically studied the DMA testing of composites for both rectangular and cylindrical beam type specimens, identified the problems, made corrections and established simple test guidelines. Using these guidelines a wide variety of materials were tested and the test results are presented. Some of the test results were compared with the ASTM D790 bend test results.

Keywords

composites DMA storage modulus damping factor.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Menard, K.P. (1999). Dynamic Mechanical Analysis - A Practical Introduction , 1st edn, CRC Press, FL, USA.

Annual Book of ASTM Standards (2002). ASTM International, West Conshohocken, Pa., Vol. 15.03, PA, USA.

Hosur, M.V. , Chowdhury, F.H. and Jeelani, S. (2005). Enhancement of Thermal and Mechanical Properties of Woven Carbon/Epoxy Composites through Nanoclay, ICCES-2005, Dec. 1-6, India .

Chowdhury, F.H. , Hosur, M.V. and Jeelani, S. (2007). Investigations on the Thermal and Flexural Properties of Plain Weave Carbon/epoxy-nanoclay Composites by Hand-layup Technique, Journal of Material Science, 42: 2690-2700.

Abot, J.L. , Yasmin, A. and Daniel, I.M. (2005). Hygroscopic Behavior of Woven Fabric Carbon-Epoxy Composites, Journal of Reinforced Plastics of Composites, 25(2): 195-207.

Abot, J.L. , Yasmin, A. , Jacobsen, A.J. and Daniel, I.M. (2004). In-Plane Mechanical, Thermal and Viscoelastic Properties of a Satin Fabric Carbon/Epoxy Composite, Composites Science and Technology, 64: 263-268.

Pirvu, A. , Gardner, D.J. and Lopez-Anido, R. (2004). Carbon Fiber-Vinyl Ester Composite Reinforcement of Wood using the VARTM/SCRIMP Fabrication Process, Composites: Part A, 35: 1257-1265.

Costa, M.L. , Botelho, E.C. , Paiva, J.M.F. and Rezende, M.C. (2005). Characterization of Cure of Carbon/Epoxy Prepreg Used in Aerospace Field, Materials Research, 8(3): 317-322.

Annual Book of ASTM Standards (1995). ASTM International, West Conshohocken, Pa., Vol. 8.03, PA, USA.

10.

Ehrenstein, G.W. , Riedel, G. and Trawiel, P. (2004). Thermal Analysis of Plastics: Theory and Practice, Hanser Gardner Publications, OH, USA.

11.

Popov, E.P. (1976). Mechanics of Materials, 2nd edn, Prentice Hall, NJ, USA.

12.

Daniel, I.M. and Ishai, O. (2005). Engineering Mechanics of Composite Materials, 2nd edn, Oxford University Press, NY, USA.

13.

Shivakumar, K.N. and Poe, C.C. (1990). A Large Deformation GII Expression for Transversely Loaded Delaminated Beams, AIAA Paper 95-1280.

14.

Hanna, M.A. (2003). Strain Energy Release Rate in Delaminated Beams and Circular plates Subjected to Transverse Loads, M.S. Thesis, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Greensboro, NC.

15.

Shivakumar, K.N. , Argade, S.D. , Sadler, R.L. , Sharpe, M.M. , Dunn, L. and Swaminathan , G. (2006). Processing and Properties of a Lightweight Fire Resistant Core Material for Sandwich Structures, Journal of Advanced Materials, 38(1): 32-38.

16.

Abali, F. , Shivakumar, K. and Sadler, R. (2000). Resin Transfer Molding Based Carbon/Carbon Composites, SAMPE 2000, Long Beach, California, May 21-25.