Continuous fibre-reinforced thermoplastics often are offered as impregnated and consolidated semi-finished products which are known as organic sheets. The thermoplastic matrix leads to several advantages including the thermoformability and weldability. Parts made of organic sheets are frequently produced by forming the semi-finished product into half-shells and stiffening those shells in the course of the process e.g. by the injection moulding of ribs. Larger and more complex parts with hollow body structures can be manufactured e.g. by forming the semi-finished products into half-shells and joining the half-shells. However, the currently available manufacturing technologies for parts made of organic sheets have cap profile shaped joints which prevent the use of the reinforcing fibres across the joint plane. Investigations have proven that overlapping weld joints in organic sheets show much higher strengths than cap profile shaped joints which can be explained by the fibre use across the joint plane. Furthermore, the infrared welding technology was verified as an appropriate process for the welding of organic sheets since no need for additional welding material is given, short heating times can be realized and no contact of the infrared emitters to the joining parts is required. Therefore, the present study shall reveal the high potential of the overlapping welding of organic sheets. Influences on the weld strengths of infrared welded organic sheets are described and potential improvements concerning the materials to be welded as well as the welding process are shown.

Endlosfaserverstärkte Thermoplaste werden oftmals als imprägnierte und konsolidierte Halbzeuge angeboten. Solche thermoplastischen Prepregs werden üblicherweise als Organobleche bezeichnet. Die thermoplastische Matrix ermöglicht unter anderem die Warmformbarkeit und Schweißbarkeit von Organoblechen. Organobleche sind, durch die ausschließliche Möglichkeit sie mittels Thermoformen umzuformen, in ihrer Formgebung auf halbschalige Strukturen beschränkt, welche begrenzte Torsions-, Verwindungs- und Beulsteifigkeiten aufweisen. Um die Steifigkeiten dieser schalenförmigen, offenen Bauteile zu erhöhen, können z. B. versteifende Rippen oder Verstärkungssegmente eingebracht werden. Aufgrund des Thermoformprozesses sind mit Organoblechen, verglichen mit duroplastischen Systemen, jedoch nur kleine und einfache Bauteilgeometrien realisierbar. Um neben der Steifigkeitserhöhung auch größere und komplexere Bauteile herzustellen, können die schalenförmigen Organobleche während des Umformvorgangs gefügt werden. Auf diese Weise werden Hohlkörper in Doppelhutprofilform gefertigt. So werden, auch ohne Einbringung von Rippen o. ä., hohe Bauteilsteifigkeiten erreicht. Die Doppelhutprofilform hat jedoch eine nicht optimale Nutzung der Faserverstärkung über die Fügeebene hinweg zur Folge, da die Fasern von der Belastungsrichtung abweichend umgelenkt werden. Im vorliegenden Beitrag wird daher das überlappende Infrarotschweißen von Organoblechen behandelt, was eine Faserverstärkung über die Fügeebene hinweg ermöglicht. Die Prozess- und Werkstoffeinflüsse auf die Verbindungseigenschaften werden beschrieben und Möglichkeiten zur Optimierung der Schweißnahteigenschaften dargestellt. Des Weiteren werden Optimierungskriterien für überlappende Infrarotschweißungen an den untersuchten Organoblechen festgelegt. Die im Verlauf der Forschungsarbeiten umzusetzenden Verfahrensvarianten zur Herstellung von Hohlkörperbauteilen aus Organblechen werden zudem vorgestellt.

Fibre Reinforced Polymer Composites are extensively used in aircraft structures because of its high specific stiffness, high specific strength and tailorability. Though Fibre Reinforced Polymers offer many advantages, they are not free from problems. The damage of different nature, e.g., service mechanical damages, fatigue damage or environmental damage can be observed during operating conditions. Among all the damages, manufacturing or service induced, delamination related damage is the most important failure mechanisms of aircraft-composite structures and can be detrimental for safety. Delamination growth under fatigue loading may take place due to local buckling, growth from free edges and notches such as holes, growth from ply-drops and impact damaged composites containing considerable delamination. Delamination growth can also occur due to interlaminar stresses, which can arise in complex structures due to unanticipated loading. The complex nature of composite failure, involving different failure modes and their interactions, makes it necessary to characterize/identify the relevant parameters for fatigue damage resistance, accumulation and life prediction. An effort has been made in this thesis to understand the fatigue behavior of carbon fibre reinforced epoxy laminates under aircraft wing service loading conditions. The study was made on laminates with different lay-up sequences (quasi-isotropic and fibre dominated) and different geometries (plain specimen, specimen with a hole and ply-drop specimen). The fatigue behaviour of the composite was analyzed by following methods: . Ultrasonic C-Scan was used to characterize the delamination growth. . Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) was done to study the interfacial degradation due to fatigue loading. In this analysis, the interfacial strength indicator and interfacial damping were calculated. The DMA also provides the storage modulus degradation under fatigue loading. . Scanning electron microscope examination was carried out to understand the fatigue damage mechanisms. . A semi-empirical phenomenological model was also used to estimate the residual fatigue life. This research work reveals that the Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer laminates are in the safe limit under service loading conditions, except the specimen with a hole. The specimen with a hole showed delaminations around the hole due to stress concentration and higher interlaminar stresses at the hole edges and this delamination is found to be associated with fibre breakage and fibre pullout. The quasi-isotropic laminate is found to show poorer fatigue behaviour when compared to fibre dominated laminate and ply-drop also shows poor performance due to high stress concentration in the ply-drop region.

In the modern era of metal-free minimally-invasive dentistry, there is a growing tendency toward using metal-free restorative alternatives that provide not only excellent aesthetics but also enable superior durability. Fibre-reinforced composite (FRC) is one cost-effective alternative that fulfils the requirements of aesthetics and durability, and offers favourable physico-mechanical properties. Many FRC applications are well-documented in the literature, such as crowns and fixed partial dentures (FPD); however, their clinical implementation is still limited, owing to the lack of significant knowledge about their longevity, deterioration signs, optimum design and overall performance. This in-vitro research aimed to address these uncertainties by investigating the performance of FRC restorations, and the influence of fibre reinforcement on particular physcio-mechanical properties, including surface hardness, edge-strength, shear bond strength, fatigue and wear resistance. Basic testing models were used to investigate the effect of incorporating differently-oriented FRCs on the surface hardness, edge-strength and shear bond strength of particulate-reinforced composite (PRC). The results revealed that the incorporation of FRC significantly enhanced surface hardness (by 12 - 19 %) and edge-strength (by 27 -75 %). However, this incorporation significantly reduced the shear bond strength (SBS) between PRC and other restorative materials, including lithium disilicate ceramic (10.9±3.1 MPa) and Co-Cr metal alloy (12.8±2.3 MPa), compared to the control (15.2±3.6 MPa, 15.0±3.7 MPa). The orientation of FRC was also found to affect the efficiency of reinforcement as bidirectional FRCs exhibited significantly higher hardness (76.8±1.2 VHN), edge-strength (67.7±8.2 N) and SBS (14.1±3.9 MPa) values than unidirectional FRCs (72.4±1.2 VHN, 56.8±5.9 N, 9.8±2.3 MPa).Clinically-relevant testing models, employing accelerated aging techniques, were performed to investigate the fatigue and wear behaviours of anatomically-shaped FRC restorations in-vitro. Direct inlay-retained FRC-FPDs with two framework designs, were tested for their fatigue behaviour and load-bearing capacity. Type-I design (with an additional bidirectional FRC layer incorporated perpendicular to the loading direction) yielded significantly higher fatigue resistance (1144.0±270.9 N) and load-bearing capacity (1598.6±361.8) than Type-II design (with a woven FRC embedded around the pontic core) (716.6±72.1 N, 1125.8±278.2 N, respectively). However, Type-19II design exhibited fewer delamination failures. Both framework design and dynamic fatigue were found to have a significant influence (p < 0.05) on the load-bearing capacity of FRC-FPDs. Additionally, the in-vitro fatigue and wear behaviours of FRC crowns, fabricated conventionally from bidirectional FRC and indirect PRC (Sinfony), were compared with those made of two CAD/CAM alternatives, namely Lava Zirconia (LZ) and Lava Ultimate (LU). A chewing simulator was employed to induce some fatigue wear in crowns, while an intraoral 3D scanner was used to quantify the resultant morphological changes. The results showed that FRC crowns had significantly lower mean cumulative wear (233.9±100.4 μm) than LU crowns (348.2±52.0 μm), but higher than LZ crowns (16.4±1.5 μm). The mean load bearing-capacity after fatigue simulation was also the highest for LZ crowns (1997.8±260.2 N) compared with FRC (1386.5±258.4 N) and LU crowns (756.5±290.9 N).Accordingly, the incorporation of FRC in resin-composite restorations is advocated since it increases surface hardness and marginal integrity, improves fatigue and wear behaviours, and enhances load-bearing capacity and overall performance.

O concreto é o material de construção mais utilizado no mundo apesar do seu comportamento frágil e sua baixa capacidade de resistir a esforços de tração. As fibras de aço podem ser adicionadas ao concreto para aumentar sua tenacidade resultando no concreto reforçado com fibras (CRF) que pode ser utilizado em muitas aplicações, incluindo o concreto projetado. Desta forma, os parâmetros de tenacidade e de resistência residual são fundamentais para a caracterização do concreto projetado reforçado com fibras de aço (CPRFA) e para seu controle de qualidade quando utilizado com função estrutural. Atualmente, o controle do comportamento pós-fissuração do CPRFA é realizado, fundamentalmente, através do ensaio de flexão de prismas. Isto demanda atividades bastante trabalhosas, desde a moldagem de placas extras e a extração de testemunhos prismáticos como a realização de ensaios que requerem muitos cuidados e, também, gera um volume maior de resíduos. A variabilidade dos resultados também é elevada, reduzindo o grau de confiabilidade do processo. Como as fibras são o material com menor nível de incorporação ao concreto devido ao efeito da reflexão, o controle do teor efetivamente incorporado ao CPRFA é um aspecto fundamental desta tecnologia. Atualmente, a estimativa deste teor de fibras é realizada por medições de massa do conteúdo de fibra obtido por esmagamento de corpos de prova endurecidos ou por lavagem de amostra de CPRFA em estado fresco, métodos considerados dispendiosos ou que consomem muita água. A fim de resolver alguns dos inconvenientes atuais, o presente estudo experimental foi realizado com o objetivo de se avaliar a utilização do ensaio Barcelona para classificar a resistência residual do CPRFA e compará-lo com o ensaio de flexão de prismas. Para a determinação do teor de fibras o método indutivo foi realizado nos mesmos corpos de prova. Nesse sentido, concretos projetados com diferentes teores de fibra foram analisados através dos métodos de ensaio referidos. Os resultados do ensaio Barcelona foram analisados estatisticamente e demostraram boa correlação com os resultados do ensaio de prismas e capacidade de caracterização do comportamento pós-fissuração do CPRFA. O ensaio indutivo permitiu a determinação do teor de fibras efetivamente incorporado ao concreto a partir dos mesmos corpos de prova usados no ensaio Barcelona, sem que houvesse a necessidade de extração de novas amostras. Este estudo apresentou, então, contribuições ao estabelecimento de programas de controle de qualidade do CPRFA, demonstrando a viabilidade da utilização conjunta do ensaio Barcelona e do método indutivo como ferramentas de caracterização e controle do CPRFA. A aplicação conjunta dos dois ensaios proporciona redução significativa em termos de tempo de trabalho e de resíduos processo de controle do material. / Concrete is the most used construction material in the world despite its fragility and low capacity to bear tensile stresses. Steel fibres may be added to the material in order to increase its toughness providing conditions to fibre reinforced concrete (FRC) to be used in many applications, such as sprayed concrete. Thus, the toughness and residual strength are key parameters for the characterization of the steel fiber reinforced sprayed concrete (SFRSC). So, both parameters are frequently used in the quality control program of SFRSC when applied as a structural material. Currently, the control of post-cracking behavior of SFRSC is carried out primarily through the bending test of prismatic specimens. This test procedure is quite laborious involving time demanding activities such as the molding of extra panels and the extraction of prismatic specimens, as well as, the test requires great care, generating a larger volume of waste. The variability of the results is also high, reducing the degree of process reliability. As the fibers are the material with lower incorporation into the concrete due to the effect of rebound, the determination of the fiber content incorporated into the SFRSC is a key aspect of this technological control. Currently, the estimation of the actual content of the fibers in SFRSC is carried out by mass measurements of the fibers extracted from crushing the hardened specimens or by washing fresh SFRSC samples. Both teste methods are considered expensive and consume high volumes of water. In order to solve some of the current drawbacks, the present experimental study was carried out to promote the assessment of the use of the Barcelona test to classify the residual strength of the SFRSC and to compare it with the prismatic specimens flexural test. To determine the fibre content the inductive test method was performed in the same specimens. In that sense, SFRSC was used to produce series of test panels varying the fibre content. Prismatic and cylindrical specimens were extracted from these test panels and submitted to the referred test methods. The results were statistically analysed and demonstrate a good correlation between flexural and Barcelona test results. The results confirm the ability of the Barcelona test to characterize the SFRSC post-cracking behavior. The inductive test, carried out in the same specimen of Barcelona test allowed the determination of actual fiber content to the concrete without the need of extra samples. This study presents, then, contributions to the quality control program for SFRSC and demonstrates the feasibility of using the Barcelona test and inductive method as tools for characterization and control for SFRSC. The combined application of the two tests provides a significant reduction in terms of labour time and waste generated during the quality control process.

Constitutive modelling of fibre reinforced solids is the focus of this work. To account for the resulting anisotropy of material, the corresponding strain energy function contains additional terms. Thus, tensile stiffness in the fibre direction is characterised by additional strain invariant and respective material constant. In this way deformation in the fibre direction is penalised. Following this logic, the model investigated in this work includes the term that penalises change in curvature in the fibre direction. The model is based on the large strain anisotropic formulation involving couple stresses, also referred to as “polar elasticity for fibre reinforced solids”. The need of such formulation arises when the size effect becomes significant. Mechanical tests are carried out to confirm the limits of applicability of the classical elasticity for constitutive description of composites with thick fibres. Classical unimaterial models fail to take into account the size affect of fibres and their bending stiffness contribution. The specific simplified model is chosen, which involves new kinematic quantities related to fibre curvature and the corresponding material stiffness parameters. In particular, additional constant k3 (associated with the fibre bending stiffness) is considered. Within the small strains framework, k3 is analytically linked to the geometric and material properties of the composite and can serve as a parameter augmenting the integral stiffness of the whole plate. The numerical tests using the updated finite element code for couple stress theory confirm the relevance of this approach. An analytical study is also carried out, extending the existing solution by Farhat and Soldatos for the fibre-reinforced plate, by including additional extra moduli into constitutive description. Solution for a pure bending problem is extended analytically for couple stress theory. Size effect of fibres is observed analytically. Verification of the new constitutive model and the updated code is carried out using new exact solution for the anisotropic couple stress continuum with the incompressibility constraint. Perfect agreement is achieved for small strain case. Large strain problem is considered by finite element method only qualitatively. Three cases of kinematic constraints on transversely isotropic material are considered in the last section: incompressibility, inextensibility and the double constraint case. They are compared with a general material formulation in which the independent elastic constants are manipulated in order to converge the solution to the “constraint” formulation solution. The problem of a thick plate under sinusoidal load is used as a test problem. The inclusion of couple stresses and additional bending stiffness constant is considered as well. The scheme of determination of the additional constant d31 is suggested by using mechanical tests combined with the analytical procedure.

This diploma thesis deals with the comparison of different properties of fibre-reinforced concrete according to the type of fibres. The main monitored property is flexural strength, tested on prisms with a cross section of 150x150 mm and a length of 600 mm. Four concretes of natural aggregate and four concrete of lightweight aggregate were prepared for the experiment. There were 2 reference concrete and 6 fibre-reinforced concrete. Three types of fibres were used: steel, polypropylene and glass. More than 2500 kg of concrete was produced. The aim of the thesis is to assess the influence of fibres on the flexural strength and other characteristics of fibre-reinforced concrete.

Předložená disertační práce se zabývá zesílením kruhových železobetonových sloupů pomocí vlákny vyztužených polymerů (tzv. FRP – fibre reinforced polymer) namáhaných laterálním cyklickým zatížením. Tato výzkumná studie se zaměřuje na zkoumání využití FRP tkaniny pro dodatečné zesílení, zlepšení chování kruhových železobetonových sloupů a vytvoření návrhového algoritmu pro zesílení kruhového sloupu pomocí kompozitních FRP materiálů. Návrhový algoritmus byl odvozen na základě analytické studie, numerických simulací a výsledků experimentální činnosti. Na základě těchto výsledků byl navržen postup pro návrh zesílení sloupů ovinutím, který předpovídá chování železobetonových sloupů vystavených laterálním cyklickým zatížením. Při experimentální práci byly zkušební vzorky zatíženy současně axiální sílou a příčným cyklickým zatížením. Toto bylo provedeno dvěma různými způsoby. První způsob zatěžování byl proveden konstantní velikostí laterální síly po daný počet cyklů (1 milion) se sledováním změny deformace. A druhý způsob provedení spočíval v zatížení konstantní deformací se sledováním úbytku síly během zatěžovací zkoušky. Dizertační práce rovněž předkládá přehled současného stavu poznání zesílení železobetonových kruhových sloupů ovinutím FRP tkaninou vystavených působení seismického zatížení. Dále uvádí přehled návrhových metodik a normová ustanovení Eurokódu a ACI. Experimentální program byl proveden za účelem ověření chování ovinutých kruhových sloupů při působení laterálního cyklického zatížení. Závěr práce sumarizuje poznatky o chování sloupů zesílených ovinutím FRP tkaninou při působení laterálního cyklického zatížení a představuje empirický model pro návrh zesílení ovinutím při vysokém a nízkém cyklickém zatížení.

L’utilisation de composites à matrice thermoplastique renforcée par fibres courtes (TRFC) connait une forte croissance pour une large gamme d’applications industrielles pour des conditions de chargement extrêmes (e.g. pare-chocs d’automobiles). Il est donc indispensable de développer des modèles de comportement des TRFC tenant compte des spécificités du matériau pour une large gamme de vitesse de déformation. Toutefois, le comportement de ces composites est complexe. Cette complexité est due, en premier lieu, au comportement viscoélastique (VE)-viscoplastique (VP) de la matrice avec une sensibilité à la pression. A cela s’ajoute les caractéristiques complexes du renfort en termes de distributions d’orientation des fibres courtes. De plus, le comportement de ces composites est affecté par des phénomènes d’endommagement coexistants (e.g. endommagement de la matrice et décohésion l’interface fibre/matrice). Dans ce travail, un modèle permettant la prise en compte de l’ensemble de ces phénomènes est proposé. Sa formulation est basée sur la décomposition du matériau en un milieu matriciel et plusieurs milieux de fibres, sur la base d’une décomposition additive du potentiel thermodynamique. Cette approche permet une implémentation simplifiée avec une résolution successive (mais non indépendante) du comportement de chaque milieu. Un avantage immédiat est la possibilité de prendre en compte tout type de comportement matriciel et tout type d’orientation. L’interface fibre/matrice, siège de la transmission de l’effort est modélisée par un transfert par cisaillement, avec sur une hypothèse locale d’iso-déformation dans la direction de la fibre. L’endommagement ductile de la matrice est pris en compte par un modèle d’endommagement anisotrope. La dégradation de l’interface fibre/matrice est décrite par un modèle de décohésion initiée en pointe de fibres. Un critère de rupture se basant sur le taux maximal de vide crée par décohésion est enfin introduit. La caractérisation du modèle est basée sur des campagnes d’essais quasi-statiques et dynamiques pour le cas de polypropylène pur et renforcé par fibres courtes de verre, à différents angles de chargement par rapport à la direction d’injection. Ces essais sont complétés par des observations au microtomographe permettant la caractérisation des distributions d’orientation locale des fibres. Des observations au MEB ont enfin permis de constater une éventuelle influence de la vitesse de sollicitation sur les mécanismes d’endommagement. / Short fibre-reinforced composites are commonly used in a variety of engineering applications, including automotive and aerospace industry. Today, their use is progressively extended to parts possibly subjected to severe loading conditions (e.g. crash...), characterised by high strain rates. Therefore, an efficient modelling that takes into account material’s specificities at a large strain rate range is needed. A constitutive model of viscous behaviour of short-fibre reinforced composites (SFRC) where complex distributions of fibre orientations are taken into account is proposed in this work. The approach considered for the computation of composite macroscopic behavior is based on an additive decomposition of the state potential. The SFRC is assimilated to an assembly of several fibre media embedded in a polymeric matrix medium. One of the main assets of this approach is the possibility to model reinforcement with complex distributions of fibre orientations. Moreover, this decomposition allows the implementation of complex behaviour laws coupled with damage models. The polymeric matrix behaviour is typically strain-rate sensitive, i.e. viscoelastic-viscoplastic. This property has to be taken into account when the modelling of the composite behaviour over a large range of strain rate is intended. Therefore, a viscoelastic constitutive model, based on generalised Maxwell model, and a viscoplastic correction scheme, based on an overstress approach, are implemented for matrix material. The developed constitutive model is then coupled to two damage laws. The first one is introduced in the framework of Continuum Damage Mechanics in order to model the anisotropic ductile damage behaviour of the matrix material. The second one deals with fibre/matrix interfacial degradation through an interfacial debonding law. In order to identify the parameters involved in the present model, experimental tests are performed (case of polypropylene reinforced with short glass fibres). Microcomputed tomography is used for the characterisation of the fibres distribution of orientation. The efficiency of the proposed model is demonstrated by comparisons between numerical and experimental responses in different loading conditions, including dynamic loadings.

Die Arbeit beschreibt die skalenübergreifende Modellierung und Simulation des Werkstoffverhaltens von Faser-Kunststoff-Verbunden mit textiler Verstärkungsstruktur, die ausgehend von den konstitutiven Eigenschaften der Verbundbestandteile (Mikroskala) und ihrer geometrischen Anordnung im Verbund (Mesoskala) die rechnerische Vorhersage des effektiven Materialverhaltens des Verbundes (Makroskala) ermöglicht. Neben Schädigungsprozessen beeinflusst insbesondere das dehnratenabhängige Materialverhalten der polymeren Matrix das mechanische Verhalten des Verbundes. Dieser Einfluss wird anhand verschiedener Glasfaser-Polypropylen-Verbunde numerisch untersucht. Ein viskoplastisches Materialmodell bildet dabei das nichtlineare Materialverhalten von Polypropylen ab. Die Modellierung der textilen Verstärkungsstruktur erfolgt durch Anwendung der erweiterten Finiten-Elemente-Methode (XFEM). Anhand des Vergleichs von rechnerisch und experimentell gewonnenen Ergebnissen erfolgt schließlich die Verifikation der vorgeschlagenen Modellierungsstrategie. / This contribution covers the trans-scale modelling and simulation of the mechanical behaviour of textile-reinforced polymers. Starting from the material properties of the individual constituents (micro-scale) and their geometrical arrangement (meso-scale), the effective material behaviour of the composite (macro-scale) is numerically predicted. In addition to damage processes, the inelastic deformation behaviour of the composite is influenced by the strain-rate dependent material behaviour of the polymeric matrix. This influence is numerically investigated for different glass-fibre-polypropylene composites. A viscoplastic material model accounts for the nonlinear mechanical behaviour of polypropylene. The complex textile reinforcement is modelled by the eXtended finite element method (XFEM). A comparison of computed and experimental results allows for the verification of the proposed modelling strategy.