• Aerospace & Defence, Automotive and Transport
  • Civil and Oil & Gas
  • Sports Equipment
  • Gradual failure

When ultra thin angle-plies are combined with fragmenting unidirectional layers in the correct ratio, a laminate can exhibit a large non-linearity. This behaviour is achieved via reorientation of the off-axis fibres and a gradual failure of the unidirectional fibres. The video shows the tensile testing of a tubular member that was manufactured in order to demonstrate these phenomena in a ‘real-world’ component. A large extension is coupled with a clear decrease in the width of the tube over the course of the footage, which corresponds to the fibre rotations and fragmentations. This type of response holds significant potential in uni-axial loading where sudden, catastrophic failure is to be avoided.

  • Pseudo-ductile skateboard with strain sensor

A pseudo-ductile thin-ply carbon fibre composite longboard incorporating a novel strain overload sensing technology.

  • HiPerDiF – recycling

The HiPerDiF multi-unit head in the video above is capable of aligning discontinuous fibres (1-12 mm length) and manufacturing preforms up to 5 mm wide. The main alignment mechanism is a sudden momentum change of fibre-water suspension. A high fibre alignment level is the key factor to increase the fibre volume fraction and consequently achieve high mechanical performance of discontinuous fibre composites [1]. In the field of composite recycling, the HiPerDiF technology showed great potential in the remanufacturing of reclaimed carbon fibres [2,3].

  1. H. Yu, K.D. Potter, M.R. Wisnom.  Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing. 65, 2014, pp. 175-185.
  2. M.L. Longana, H. Yu, M. Jalalvand, M.R. Wisnom, K.D. Potter. Composites Science and Technology. 143, 2017, pp. 13-21.
  3. M.L. Longana, N. Ong, H. Yu, K.D. Potter. Composites Structures. 153, 2016, pp. 271-277.