This study centers on investigating the influence of conductive additives, carbon black (Super P) and graphene, within the context of LiFePO4 (LFP)-impregnated carbon fibers (CFs) produced using the powder impregnation method. The performance of these additives was subject to an electrochemical evaluation. The findings reveal that there are no substantial disparities between the two additives at lower cycling rates, highlighting their adaptability in conventional energy storage scenarios. However, as cycling rates increase, graphene emerges as the better performer. At a rate of 1.5C in a half-cell versus lithium, electrodes containing graphene exhibited a discharge capacity of 83 mAhgLFP−1; those with Super P and without any additional conductive additive showed a capacity of 65 mAhgLFP−1 and 48 mAhgLFP−1, respectively. This distinction is attributed to the structural and conductivity advantages inherent to graphene, showing its potential to enhance the electrochemical performance of structural batteries. Furthermore, LFP-impregnated CFs were evaluated in full cells versus pristine CFs, yielding relatively similar results, though with a slightly improved outcome observed with the graphene additive. These results provide valuable insights into the role of conductive additives in structural batteries and their responsiveness to varying operational conditions, underlining the potential for versatile energy storage solutions. © 2024 The Authors

A structural battery is a multifunctional battery that can carry a load while storing energy. Structural batteries have been a cutting-edge research focus in the last decade and are mainly based on polyacrylonitrile (PAN)-carbon fibers (CFs). In this work, positive electrodes based on PAN-carbon fibers were manufactured with powder impregnation (siphon impregnation) technique using a water-based slurry containing lithium iron phosphate (LFP) as the active electrode material and the water-soluble binder polyethylene glycol (PEG). Different coating compositions, electrode-drying temperatures, and coating parameters were investigated to optimize the coating uniformity and the electrochemical performances. Scanning electron microscopy results showed that the electrode materials coat the CFs uniformly, conformably, and individually. Electrochemical characterization of pouch cells shows that the electrodes containing 6 wt% PEG dried at 140 °C have the best battery performance, delivering a first discharge capacity of 151 mAh g−1 and capacity retention higher than 80% after 100 cycles. Moreover, excellent capacity reversibility was achieved when the electrodes were cycled at multiple C-rates attesting to their stability. The results demonstrate that CFs perform excellently as current collectors in positive electrodes. 

Tape-based discontinuous composite is a relatively new type of composite material that offers improved mechanical properties for similar process-ability compared to Sheet Moulding Compound or Bulk Moulding Compound. This makes it potentially attractive for the automotive industry. In this paper, a thin-ply carbon fibre reinforced polypropylene-based discontinuous composite is studied. Mechanical tests are performed to obtain the tensile, compression and shear behaviour of the material. The energy absorption via tearing is also studied to assess the suitability of the material for energy absorption applications, such as crash-boxes. The tearing test results show a large degree of plastic deformation and an advancing damage front leading to higher specific energy absorption via tearing compared to conventional composite materials. © 2021 The Author(s). 

Processing of polymer fibre composites has a remarkable influence on their mechanical performance. These mechanical properties are even more influenced when using recycled reinforcement. Therefore, we place particular attention on the evaluation of micromechanical models to estimate the mechanical properties and compare them against the experimental results of the manufactured composites from recycled carbon fibre material. For the manufacturing process, an epoxy matrix and carbon fibre production cut-offs as reinforcing material are incorporated using a vacuum infusion process. In addition, continuous textile reinforcement in combination with the epoxy matrix is used as reference material to evaluate the degradation of mechanical performance of the recycled composite. The experimental results show higher degradation of the composite strength compared to the stiffness properties. Observations from the modelling also show the same trend as the deviation between the theoretical and experimental results is lower for stiffness comparisons than the strength calculations. Yet still, good mechanical performance for specific applications can be expected from these materials.

Helmets are the most effective protective item for motorcyclists. The liner of the helmet is the part of the helmet which dissipates most of the impact energy and mitigates the risk of head injuries. It has been proposed that the helmet test standards should include assessment of the helmets for oblique impacts that is not currently addressed in the standards. A conventional uniaxial compression test method is still used for characterization of the helmet liner material. However, compressive tests of EPS foams provide reliable results for normal loading on EPS, but do not provide a realistic result for oblique impacts. Therefore, we carried out experimental tests to measure the response of EPS foams, which are commonly used for helmet liners, under biaxial loading. The result of our experiments show that the shear response of EPS foams is a function of axial compression, and increasing the axial strain leads to increased shear stiffness, and thus higher levels of shear stress. We also showed that including shear-stiffening of EPS in the FE assessment of helmets may change the headform rotational acceleration by 25%. Therefore, such behavior of EPS foams should be included in FE analysis of helmets in the case of oblique impacts for a more realistic assessment of their performance.

In process simulation of composite materials, 3D simulation of manufacturing processes is desirableconsidering the manufacturing trend where parts became more complex leading to complex3D stress-strain states. Moreover, coupling of sub-processes that are happening simultaneouslysuch as macro-scale preform processes, micro-infiltration and solid and fluid interactionrequires full 3D description of the problem.The development is exemplified considering compression moulding process of prepregs wherethe main focus of the modeling will be on the compression and compaction of directionalprepreg laminate and flow consolidation. To this end, the theory of two phase porous mediais used along with assuming hyper-elastic material response for the laminate to formulatethe problem. A finite element formulation and implementation of the two-phase problem is developedfor incompressible constituents and is implemented in a user defined element (UEL)to be used with Abaqus.

It is shown, using thermodynamically consistent linear viscoelastic material model that accounts for properties dependence on test temperature and cure state parameters, that for rheologically simple materials the cure and temperature related reduced times and shift factors are the same for all viscoelastic compliances, relaxation modulus, and Poisson’s ratio as well as for the storage and loss modulus. A necessary condition for that is that the cure and temperature parameters are affecting the reduced time only. This means that the Poisson’s ratio of polymeric materials, which for simplicity is often assumed constant, in fact exhibits a small dependence on time which is affected by temperature and state of cure. In this work, the evolution of the viscoelastic Poisson’s ratio of the commercial LY5052 epoxy resin is studied in relaxation test subjecting the specimen to constant axial strain. Specimens at several cure states are studied and Poisson’s ratio, defined as the lateral and axial strain ratio, is shown to evolve from 0.32 to 0.44 over time. Moreover, the data confirm that the cure state-dependent reduced time controlling the Poisson’s ratio development leads to the same shift functions as those identified in DMTA tests for storage modulus. The latter measurements also confirmed that the total shift can be considered as a sum of two shifts in the frequency domain, which means that function for reduced time calculation can be written as a product of two functions: one dependent on the test temperature and another one dependent on the cure state.

The Poisson's ratio of a solid under deformation is classically defined as the negative of the ratio between the lateral or transverse strain and the axial strain. Ideally for an elastic material, the Poisson's ratio is assumed to be a constant. However, for viscoelastic materials like polymers and polymer matrix composites this is also likely influenced by various factors like time [1], temperature, degree of cure and also on the strain. In this work, the evolution of the viscoelastic Poisson's ratio of the commercial LY5052 epoxy resin is studied under uniaxial tension subject to constant deformation stress relaxation testing. Measurements of the Poisson ratios are performed using contact extensometers and strain gages. Samples at five different cure states are manufactured and investigated. The relaxation testing is performed by loading the samples to 0.5% longitudinal strain and monitoring the relaxation behavior over a period of 24 hours per cure state. Poisson's ratio is observed to evolve from 0.32 to 0.44 over time depending on the cure state. Moreover the data indicates that the individual Poisson's ratio curves can be shifted horizontally following time-cure superposition. The shift functions used for this horizontal shifting are similar to those identified for DMTA tests for storage modulus under identical conditions. Following horizontal shifting, master curves that show the evolution of Poisson's ratio over time can be created for a particular reference cure state. This similarity of the shift functions in both micro-scale DMTA testing and macro-scale relaxation testing is an indicator of the validity of the shift factors. The observation is used to further develop a viscoelastic model which identifies the total shift function as the product of the temperature and cure shift functions. 

In this work, we investigate the relationship between the rubbery modulus and the degree of cure for partially to fully cured LY5052 epoxy resin. In particular, this paper experimentally tests an existing model formulated for shear modulus by redefining for in the tensile storage modulus. Experiments to characterize viscoelastic behaviour were performed in a dynamic mechanical and thermal analysis (DMTA) instrument in the frequency domain. Master curves are then created from DMTA using general time–temperature–cure superposition. The master curves are then normalized using the model so that the master curve does not depend on the properties in the rubbery region. This results in a unique master curve that describes the viscoelastic behaviour of the LY5052 epoxy resin for the given conditions. Once the relationship between the rubbery modulus and the degree of cure has been established, the amount of experimental characterization can be reduced. This could lead to the development of simplified experimental methodologies and simplified models to characterize the viscoelasticity of low molecular weight resins like the LY5052 epoxy resin system.

The present contribution is an attempt to model a prepreg that is assumed to have approximatelystraight and parallel fibers which in an unloaded state has a transversely isotropicsymmetry about the fiber axis n. It is further assumed that the prepreg behaves elastic undera purely volumetric deformation, as well as under axial stretching in the fiber direction.A two-scale flow highly coupled to the fiber bed deformation is also being modelled usingporomechanics. The framework comprises a nonlinear compressible fiber network saturatedwith incompressible fluid phase.