Thesis (doctoral)--University of London, 1980. / BLDSC reference no.: DX187925.

The objective of this research was to investigate the effect of applied compressive strain in various environments, on the strength and stiffness of compressed wood samples. It is believed that transverse compression of wood at specific conditions of temperature and moisture will result in improved mechanical properties, which can be attributed to increased density and perhaps other physical or chemical changes. Specimens of both mature and juvenile southern pine (Pinus taeda) and yellow-poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera) were compressed radially at three different temperature, and moisture content conditions relevant to the glass transition of wood. Ultimate tensile stress and longitudinal modulus of elasticity were obtained by testing compressed, uncompressed and control samples in tension parallel-to-grain. Strain measurements were performed using laboratory-built clip-on strain gauge transducers. Results of the tensile tests have shown an increase in the ultimate tensile stress and modulus of elasticity after all densification treatments. Scanning electron microscopy was employed for observing changes in cellular structure of densified wood. Existence of the cell wall fractures was evaluated using image processing and analysis software. Changes in cellular structure were correlated with the results of the tensile test. Chemical composition of wood samples before and after desorption experiments was determined by acid hydrolysis followed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The results of the chemical analysis of the wood specimens did not reveal significant changes in chemical composition of wood when subjected to 160 °C, pure steam for up to 8 hours. The results of this research will provide information about modifications that occur during wood compression and will result in better understanding of material behavior during the manufacture of wood-based composites. In the long run, modification of wood with inadequate mechanical properties can have a significant effect on the wood products industry. Low density and juvenile wood can be used in new high-performance wood-based composite materials instead of old-growth timber. / Master of Science

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2004. / Supervisor: Katherine A. Liapi. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Also available from UMI.

It has been suggested that the use of fibre bundles rather than individual fibres can improve the toughness properties of a short-fibre composite. Previous experimental work on this topic employed materials in which bundles were impregnated prior to manufacture or materials with poorly defined fibre-bundling. This study is the first to consider the mechanical properties of a series of materials where the bundles have been impregnated during manufacture of the material, and the materials tested contained a well-defined proportion of fibres within bundles of a known size. A novel manufacturing technique has been developed that can be used to produce short carbon fibre reinforced polypropylene materials with a controlled proportion of fibres in bundles. Materials manufactured in this work contained 0 %, 25 %, 50 %, 75 % and 100 % of the fibres in bundles. The fibres had a length of 5 mm or 10 mm and the bundles contained either 1000 or 6000 fibres. An increase in the proportion of fibres within bundles results in a decrease in the tensile modulus of the short-fibre composites. This decrease was less severe for materials containing bundles with a greater aspect ratio or laminates with a greater thickness. A model for the modulus of the materials has been developed which illustrates some of the effects of fibre-bundling on the structure of a short-fibre composite. For the materials studied, tensile strength of materials containing bundles was one quarter of the tensile strength of the filamentised material. Only one combination of fibre length and bundle size resulted in a clear increase in toughness, as measured by JJ, compared to the filamentised material and this increase appears to be due to areas of unreinforced matrix in the material. Materials containing both filamentised fibres and fibre bundles had relatively low values of J, The fracture surfaces were imaged and three distinct ways in which a bundle may fail have been identified. Discussion of the fracture mechanisms active in these materials concludes that the use of fibre-bundling to improve toughness is unlikely to be effective due to the mechanism that has been proposed

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Magnesium alloys, as the lightest of all structural metallic materials, and aluminium-based particulate metal matrix composites (PMMCs), offering unified combination of metallic and ceramic properties, have attracted increased interest from the automotive, aerospace, electronic and recreation industries. Current processing technologies for PMMCs do not achieve a uniform distribution of fine-sized reinforcements and produce agglomerated particles in the ductile matrix, which are detrimental to the ductility. At the same time, molten magnesium alloys contain impurities and oxides and when cast conventionally, the final components usually exhibit a coarse and non-uniform microstructure with various casting defects. The key idea in this thesis has been to adopt a novel intensive melt conditioning process, allowing the application of sufficient shear stress that would disperse solid particles present in the melt and offer unique solidification behaviour, improved fluidity and die-filling during casting. The Melt Conditioned High Pressure Die Casting (MC-HPDC) process, where intensive shearing is directly imposed on the alloy melt, which is then cast by the conventional HPDC process, has been used to produce PMMC and magnesium alloy castings. The MC-HPDC process for PMMCs leads to a uniform dispersion of the reinforcement in the matrix, confirmed by quantitative statistical analysis, and increased mechanical performance as indicated by an increase in the hardness and the tensile properties of the composites. We describe a solidification path for aluminium containing magnesium alloys, where intensive shearing prior to casting leads to effective dispersion of solid oxide particles, which then effectively act as nucleation sites for magnesium grains, resulting in significant grain refinement. The MC-HPDC processed magnesium castings have a significantly refined microstructure, with reduced porosity levels and casting defects. Evaluation of the mechanical properties of the castings reveals the beneficial effect of intensive shearing. After careful optimization, the MC-HPDC process shows promising potential for the direct recycling of high purity magnesium die casting scrap, producing casting with mechanical properties comparable to those of primary magnesium alloys.