Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies of Materials (IMDEA), Madrid

Description

BGER- Analysis of the traction-displacement behaviour of composite interfaces

This short research visit took place at Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies of Materials (IMDEA). The aim of the visit was to generate scanning electron micrographs (SEM) of a hybrid glass/carbon epoxy composite specimen, showing the full field displacement and strain of the layer interfaces under shear. The load was applied through a special small-scale in-situ tensile tester machine which is designed to be put in an SEM chamber. Deformation fields of the previously polished and particle coated specimen surface was captured by taking multiple overlapping SEM images at successive load steps. The images were stitched together during post-processing and went under digital image correlation (DIC) to establish the full displacement and strain fields of the carbon/glass hybrid composite interface of interest. The DIC technique can make the damage process zone of the analysed hybrid composite layer interface visible, therefore allowing for some qualitative assessment. Utilising the finite element method (FEM) for further analysis, it is possible to determine the traction-displacement law of the interface. The planned data generation task is completed successfully, and further DIC and FEM analysis is ongoing.

Period	6 Mar 2013 → 15 Mar 2013
Visiting	Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies of Materials (IMDEA), Madrid