Objective
This project is to develop 3-D woven fabrics for fibre reinforced polymer composites. Conventional 2D fabrics exhibit a significant reduction in compression and shear strength as a result of delaminations. The new 3-D fabrics will reduce this effect significantly whilst retaining satisfactory strength along the conventional (in-plane) fibre directions. This will allow a wider use of polymer composites in road and rail transport, oil and gas and civil infrastructure, as well as the aerospace market. The 3-D fabrics will be developed on existing production weaving machines, and a range of fibre architectures will be produced. Low cost composite manufacturing techniques will be adopted using the resin transfer moulding process. Modelling techniques will be developed for predicting the mechanical properties of the composites so that the additional weave parameters introduced by through-the-thickness fibres can be controlled by the weaver during manufacture of the fabrics. The predicted properties will be compared with experimentally determined values, and the improvement in impact and damage tolerance of these composites will also be demonstrated.
Fields of science
Topic(s)
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
EAW - Exploratory awardsCoordinator
BB10 3NA Burnley
United Kingdom