CHAPTER 3:

COMPOSITE DESIGN
3.1 MATERIAL SELECTION CRITERIA

DR YUSRIAH LAZIM
 MATERIAL SELECTION
v  Material selection must not be made in isolation from the processing
method & the assembly process

v  Procedure of plastic product design:

Definition of function à formulation of designà

à  Process selection & Assembly selection & Material

à  selectionàfinalization of the design

v  The material selection procedure:

v  - define the properties that are essential to the performance of the product/
component

- shortlist possible materials by eliminating polymers that did not meet

requirement

- addition of additive/fiber/filler/processing aid

 (1) Defining the environment
v  Definition of environment which the product is expected to
operate

v  Could be based on specifications or standards such as :

British Standards etc

v  Standards are usually need to be complied for civil and

military aircraft application

v  If standards are not applicable, the designer has to develop

his own by considering environmental conditions including:
ü  Operating temperature
ü  Exposure to sunlight and weathering
ü  Exposure to chemicals
ü  Humidity
ü  Electrical environment (insulation, voltage)

•  Most important, stress environment must be determined:

ü  Maximum stress
ü  External stress
ü  Stress continuous or intermittent
ü  Maximum permissible deformation
ü  Whether impacts may occur routinely or by accident
ü  Whether friction, wear, fatigue are important
ü  Design tolerance
 (2) Processing/ method of manufacture
v  In selecting material, it is important to decide at the same
time on the method of manufacture of the product/
component

v  Polymer materials vary widely in their processing

characteristics.

v  Important that the design developed can be produced

economically & efficiently from the selected material

v  Differences between shorts fibre/particulate filled

composites VS long-fibre reinforced composites
v  Major consideration:

Ø  Processability

Ø  Economics factor – large number of products: injection

molding etc

Ø  How the component is to be joined to the remainder of

the product:

v  -welding, fastening – thermoplastic composites

v  - adhesives, mechanical fastening – thermoset

composites
v  The number of the products that need to be produced
should be known in order to choose the processing
technique

v  The consideration for the option:

ü  Which process will produce the part
ü  Which process is the cheapest (low cost)
ü  What is the tooling cost
ü  Is the process reliable
ü  Will additional process be necessary
ü  How much scrap will be produced
ü  Can the scrap be recycled
ü  Has it been done before
v  By establishing the process, it helps to reduce number of materials
need to be considered

v  Example: If injection moulding is chosen:

ü  few materials suited this process (thermoplastic & thermoset in

powder form).

ü  Material with high viscosity melts should not be considered if the
product has some long narrow parts in it.

ü  High viscosity melt will not fill the mould

ü  Type of reinforcement: short & particulate

ü  Require mould release agent : Yes or No?

ü  Yes: Mould release agent needs to be sprayed at regular intervals time,
so it increases the cycle time

ü  No: Shorter cycle time, higher production rate

ü  Partly crystalline or amorphous?

ü  Partly crystalline: solidify at faster rate compared to

amorphous material at same temperature range

ü  Due to large change of viscosity at the Tm

 Example 1
v  Product: Expansion joints in chemical installation/tanks/
pipes

v  Type of material: PTFE

v  Environment: Resistance to extremely corrosive

environment, chemicals, flexibility, good mechanical
strength

v  Reason: Despite its high price, and difficulties in

processing, PTFE is selected because no materials other
than fluorocarbon polymers meet the requirement
 Example 2
v  Product: Rear light lenses

v  Environment: High stiffness, high impact strength,

transparency, high softening temperature, replacement for
glass

v  Material: PC or PMMA?

v  For car component, must consider if there is accidental

contact with automotive fluids: fuel, acid, oils etc
 Example 3
v  Product: Parts in the engine compartment

v  Environment:

- Resistance to automotive fluid

-  Good mechanical properties over wide range of
temperature
-  Material:
1)  Glass fiber reinforced polyamide (radiator header tanks)à
high heat distortion temperature
2)  PP- cooling fans (even though low softening point, cheap)

3)  PVC- bumper (good impact resistance, low & high temp)

4)  Rubber – engine mounting

v  For designing thermoset composites:

•  Not only focusing on the shaping of the products/

components

•  Should also focus on the exothermic chemical reaction –

no overheating, unwanted reaction-thermal issues

v  For designing thermoplastic composites:

•  Consider creep

•  Deflection limit

•  Fatigue

•  Maximum mechanical strength limit (e.g. max tensile

strain/max tensile stress)
v  The properties of the material is contributed by the
chemical structure of the polymer material itself

v  However, the properties of the polymer material can be

modified using:

v  - additive (flame retardant, anti-static, plasticizer)

v  - filler (mineral filler, impact modifier etc)

v  - alloying or blending with other polymer

v  - fibre reinforcement (glass fiber, carbon fiber, aramid

fiber) à increase the stiffness of the polymer material

v  à increase the temperature resistance (can operate at

high temperature)
•  Organic and inorganic liquids can make the sub-critical
crack growth problem under external and internal stressing
worse.

•  It is important to know how the product/component

performs in organic liquid, acid and alkali

•  For example: less polar polymers such as PS are more

susceptible to physical attack in the form of solvent crazing

•  More polar polymers such as polyamide are prone to

chemical attack by acid

•  Photo-oxidation could lead to surface embrittlementà

fracture.

•  Affected polymers: PE, PP,

v  Non-affected polymer: PVC, PMMA- relatively resistant

v  Further protection from photo-oxidation:

-adding pigments which absorb or deflect light e.g. CB

- adding anti oxidant

- adding chemical compounds that absorb UV light e.g

suntan oil
 CHAPTER 3:
COMPOSITE DESIGN

3.2 GEOMETRICAL ASPECTS

v  Geometrical aspects of the components/parts made from a
composite is important factor that need to be focused in
design process.

v  Poor geometry design will results in:

•  Difficulty in the flow of melt polymer in the mould during

processing

•  Low mechanical strength/stiffness

•  Shrinkage problem

•  Curing problem

v  By changing the geometry or structure of the composites

component, the mechanical properties (stiffness, strength)
could be improved.
1. Sharp corners
v  The smooth flow of the melt in the mould is
interrupted by sharp corners

v  Sharp internal corners should be avoided when

designing composite components/parts.

v  It acts as stress concentrator and will be the sites for

crack initiation on moulded parts

v  Parts with sharp corners should be designed with

radius not less than 0.5 mm.
 2. Change in wall thickness
v  Abrupt change in wall thickness will interrupt flow of
the melt in the mould

v  It also gives rise to problem of different shrinkage such

as :
•  Sink marks
•  Voids
•  Warping
•  Moulded-in stress
v  Sink marks form where the wall thickness changes
especially opposite ribs and bosses structure.

v  To reduce/minimize sink marks:

•  Ribs should be between ½ and 2/3 of thickness of the

wall that they are reinforcing
•  Double rib is preferable than single wide rib
•  Height of the rib should be less than 3 times wall
thickness
•  Use styling features if the sink marks is inevitable
 3. Other structures
v  Rib, flanges, bosses increase the stiffness and strength
of the part without increasing overall thickness of the
parts

v  However these structure should be designed carefully

to avoids problems such as voids, sink marks etc.

v  The use of ribs, corrugations, box sections and

sandwich structures increase the flexural rigidity/
stiffness and strength of the structure/components.

v  They are applied in designing composites to reduce

the thick wall sections.
v  Thick wall sections are undesirable because:

•  Increased amount of material needed

•  Increase weight of product

•  Problems with cooling of the parts

•  Lengthen the mould cycle time (low production rate)

•  Differential shrinkage

•  Warping problem
 4. Composites reinforced with
long fibers
v  Designing components made of composites reinforced
with long fibers must focus on their fiber orientation

v  This type of composites are made from long fiber-

reinforced composites by laminating together
unidirectional layers of fiber-reinforced resin

v  If all of the layers have the same fiber orientation, the
composite is weak in the transverse direction

v  Angle-ply laminates are more preferred for most

applications
v  Choosing a stacking sequence that is symmetrical
about the mid-plane ensures:
ü  in-plane stress do not produce out-of-plane twisting/
bending
ü  bending does not change the dimension of the mid
plane

v  For asymmetric laminates, twisting occurs at:

ü  In response to applied stress
ü  Due to resin contraction during cooling and curing

v  However, there are designs that prefer asymmetry such

as turbine fan blades
v  Strength of a fiber reinforced composite is strongly
dependent upon fiber orientation

v  The strength is highly anisotropic in areas where the

fibers are aligned

v  Long fiber composites show good fatigue resistance

v  One of the problem for fiber reinforced thermoset
composite is interlaminar splitting

v  It occurs when the void content within the composite

is high

v  At high void content, a spanner dropped on to a

laminated sheet composite could initiate undetected
damage

v  This might results in failure by buckling when the

composite is loaded in compression

v  The interlaminar shear strength can be measured by

subjecting short bar specimens to 3-points bending,
and calculated using equation:

v  *eq page 363

 Example 1
v  Glass fiber reinforced epoxy composite leaf spring

v  The spring is made from unidirectional glass fiber with an

epoxy resin matrix
v  The operating temperature range is -30 to 60°C.

v  The material withstands salt, water, fuel, oil, battery

acid and anti-freeze

v  The 3.5 kg composite spring replaces an 18.5 kg leaf

steel spring

v  The composite spring has 5x longer life than steel

spring

v  Improved ride and reduced noise

v  Under severe overloading, the components fails by

longitudinal splitting
 Example 2
v  Helicopter rotor blade

v  Metal blade was replaced with composite rotor blade

v  The composite rotor blade is made of:

ü  Areas: UD glass fiber & carbon fiber
ü  Woven glass fiber cloth trailing edge skins
ü  Paper honeycomb core
ü  Titanium erosion shield
v  the metal blade retires after 9400 hours in service
v  The composite blade do not need replacement during 40 000
hour services
v  Safe is improves, overall running cost reduced