MAE/CEE 5060 Mechanics of Composite Materials

SPRING 2015
HOMEWORK 1: Constituent Materials, (40 pts, 5-points for each 1-8)
DUE: Wednesday, Jan. 14, 5:30 p.m. on CANVAS in a PDF file
1) Make a table like the following and fill in the blanks.
Fiber Material

Characteristics

Graphite PAN
(IM)

1)
2)
3)
1)
2)
3)
1)
2)
3)
1)
2)
3)

E-Glass

Polymer
Kevlar-49
Kenaf

Anisotropy

Density(
kg/m3)

Diameter
(m)

Tensile
Modulus
Range
( GPa)

Tensile
Strength Range
(GPa)

2) Make two bar charts showing the a) specific strengths and b) the specific stiffnesses of a) SGlass, b) HM-Carbon c) Kevlar-49, High strength Steel, 6061 T6 Aluminum. Use units of
MPa/(kg/m3). You may need to find properties from other sources than the textbook.
3) Define the following terms:
a) With regard to carbon fibers; IM, HM, UHM, PAN precursor fibers.
b) With regard to glass fibers: E-glass, S-glass, C-glass
4) What are the purposes of a chemical sizing on fibers?
5) Describe a least 3 major differences between thermosetting resins and thermoplastic resins.
6) Describe the mechanism that allows polymeric fibers to have negative coefficients of thermal
expansion.
7) List three purposes of the matrix material.
8) Write a short answer about constitutive equations.
a) What is a constitutive equation? Give examples
b) What is the difference between a compliance and a stiffness constitutive equation?
c) Do the stiffness and compliance matrices change at a point if the coordinate system is changed
from a rectangular system to a cylindrical coordinate system? Why?