The recent resurgence and growing interest in high temperature structures to maximise design space and performance in motorsport applications, led to the need for greater understanding of high temperature composite materials. This study aimed to investigate suitable materials for high temperature structures with application to the motorsport environment. Composite materials were quickly identified as the most appropriate materials given the needs of motorsport, with polysialate composites championed after a thorough review of available materials. A commercially available composite reinforced with silicon carbide fibres was selected to meet the study requirements. This led to the need for thermal and mechanical characterisation in order to provide temperature dependant data suitable for accurate design of high temperature structures. The result of .this was a full engineering dataset for the most widely used polysialate composites, filling In significant gaps in the literature, whilst simultaneously producing a novel and unique high temperature tensile testing rig for this composite laminates. In turn, this new data was exploited with application to a polysialate composite case study structure; an exhaust liner used on current Formula One vehicles. This required full understanding of the thermal and mechanical load cases experienced by the liner, in order to accurately simulate the liner and environment using finite element analysis. Not only did this provide an application of the newly acquired temperature dependant material properties, but it also highlighted the need for temperature dependant properties in the design of high temperature structures. The study, its aims and approach, were validated through comparison of simulation failure predictions against component failed in service.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:617589 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Mills-Brown, Joseph |
| Publisher | University of Bristol |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
Page generated in 0.0018 seconds