EUROPEAN CONGRESS AND EXHIBITION ON ADVANCED MATERIALS AND PROCESSES - EUROMAT 2021

Fiber reinforced composites (FRPs) find extensive use in various applications due to their intrinsically high specific strength, replacing conventional materials in fields such as sports, transportation, and aerospace. A novel multiscale reinforcement for the interlayer (region between two successive laminas) is suggested via the thermal consolidation of a polymer nanofiber system on both surfaces of dry technical fabrics (carbon glass, aramid), with its enhanced functionality owned to the three different scales incorporated. The material configuration at the lamina level comprises of microfibre-nanofibre-nanoparticle fractal networks, imitating the architecture of natural structures like feathers.
The presented work examines the applicability of polymer-based electrospun nanofabrics to serve as potential interlayer reinforcements for multilayer-FRPs. Nanofabric layers are consolidated through the development of a scalable and of high throughput process. Polyamide 6 , polyacrylonitrile and Polyvinylidene fluoride, plain and doped with multiwall carbon nanotubes are examined. The effect of nanotube concentration on the properties of nanofabrics is investigated. The nanofabric systems are tested for their stress-strain behavior along with their morphology (via Scanning Electron Microscopy). The thermal behavior of nanofabrics is investigated via Differential Scanning Calorimetry to elucidate on their glass transition temperature, crystallinity, and melting point, in alignment with processing parameters at composite level. The mechanical performance of the nanofabrics is assessed following heat treatment, to simulate the typical processing parameters for composite manufacturing.
Evaluation of the consolidation process is made through a numerical model,constructed to simulate the thermal consolidation process and identify optimum operation parameters to effectively consolidate each nanofiber. The model is validated with the assessment of quality of the enhanced textile produced through visual inspection, thermal imaging, and microscopy.

This work was co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund and the Republic of Cyprus through the Research and Innovation Foundation (Project: INNOVATE/0719/0011).