Mechanical response of carbon fiber composite sandwich panels with pyramidal truss cores

The combination of light carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite materials with structurally efficient sandwich panel designs offers novel opportunities for ultralight structures. Here, pyramidal truss sandwich cores with relative densities ρ̄ in the range 1-10% have been manufactured from carbon fiber reinforced polymer laminates by employing a snap-fitting method. The measured quasi-static shear strength varied between 0.8 and 7.5 MPa. Two failure modes were observed: (i) Euler buckling of the struts and (ii) delamination failure of the laminates. Micro-buckling failure of the struts was not observed in the experiments reported here while Euler buckling and delamination failures occurred for the low (ρ̄≤1%) and high (ρ̄>1%) relative density cores, respectively. Analytical models for the collapse of the composite cores by these failure modes are presented. Good agreement between the measurements and predictions based on the Euler buckling and delamination failure of the struts is observed while the micro-buckling analysis over-predicts the measurements. The CFRP pyramidal cores investigated here have a similar mechanical performance to CFRP honeycombs. Thus, for a range of multi-functional applications that require an "open-celled" architecture (e.g. so that cooling fluid can pass through a sandwich core), the CFRP pyramidal cores offer an attractive alternative to honeycombs. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Measurement of the elastic constants of nanometric films

Carbon coatings of thickness down to 2 nanometers are needed to increase the storage density in magnetic hard disks and reach the 100 Gbit/in2 target. Methods to measure the properties of these ultrathin hard films still have to be developed. We show that combining Surface Brillouin Scattering (SBS) andX-ray reflectivity measurements the elastic constants of such films are accessible. Tetrahedral amorphous carbofilms of thickness down to about 2 nm were deposited on Si by an S bend filtered cathodic vacuum arc, achieving a continuous coverage on large areas free of macroparticles. Film thickness and mass density are measured by X-ray reflectivity: densities above 3 g/cm3 are found, indicating a significant sp3 content. The dispersion relations of surface acoustic waves are measured by SBS. We show that for thicknesses above ∼4 nm these waves can be described by a continuum elastic model based on a single homogeneous equivalent film. The elastic constants can then be obtained by fitting the dispersion relations, computed for given film properties, to the measured dispersion relations. For thicknesses of 3 nm or less qualitative differences among films are well measurable, but quantitative results are less reliable. We have thus shown that we can grow and characterise nanometer size tetrahedral amorphous carbon film, which maintain their high density and peculiar mechanical properties down to around 4 nm thickness, satisfying the requirements set for the hard disk coating material.

Gaussian Approximation Potential: an interatomic potential derived from first principles Quantum Mechanics

Simulation of materials at the atomistic level is an important tool in studying microscopic structure and processes. The atomic interactions necessary for the simulation are correctly described by Quantum Mechanics. However, the computational resources required to solve the quantum mechanical equations limits the use of Quantum Mechanics at most to a few hundreds of atoms and only to a small fraction of the available configurational space. This thesis presents the results of my research on the development of a new interatomic potential generation scheme, which we refer to as Gaussian Approximation Potentials. In our framework, the quantum mechanical potential energy surface is interpolated between a set of predetermined values at different points in atomic configurational space by a non-linear, non-parametric regression method, the Gaussian Process. To perform the fitting, we represent the atomic environments by the bispectrum, which is invariant to permutations of the atoms in the neighbourhood and to global rotations. The result is a general scheme, that allows one to generate interatomic potentials based on arbitrary quantum mechanical data. We built a series of Gaussian Approximation Potentials using data obtained from Density Functional Theory and tested the capabilities of the method. We showed that our models reproduce the quantum mechanical potential energy surface remarkably well for the group IV semiconductors, iron and gallium nitride. Our potentials, while maintaining quantum mechanical accuracy, are several orders of magnitude faster than Quantum Mechanical methods.

Learning based automatic face annotation for arbitrary poses and expressions from frontal images only

Statistical approaches for building non-rigid deformable models, such as the Active Appearance Model (AAM), have enjoyed great popularity in recent years, but typically require tedious manual annotation of training images. In this paper, a learning based approach for the automatic annotation of visually deformable objects from a single annotated frontal image is presented and demonstrated on the example of automatically annotating face images that can be used for building AAMs for fitting and tracking. This approach employs the idea of initially learning the correspondences between landmarks in a frontal image and a set of training images with a face in arbitrary poses. Using this learner, virtual images of unseen faces at any arbitrary pose for which the learner was trained can be reconstructed by predicting the new landmark locations and warping the texture from the frontal image. View-based AAMs are then built from the virtual images and used for automatically annotating unseen images, including images of different facial expressions, at any random pose within the maximum range spanned by the virtually reconstructed images. The approach is experimentally validated by automatically annotating face images from three different databases. © 2009 IEEE.

Electrical transport and percolation in magnetoresistive manganite / insulating oxide composites: case of La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 / Mn3O4

We report the results of electrical resistivity measurements carried out on well-sintered La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 / Mn3O4 composite samples with almost constant composition of the magnetoresistive manganite phase (La0.7Ca0.3MnO3). A percolation threshold (fc) occurs when the La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 volume fraction is ~ 0.19. The dependence of the electrical resistivity as a function of La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 volume fraction (fLCMO) can be described by percolation-like phenomenological equations. Fitting the conducting regime (fLCMO > fc) by the percolation power law returns a critical exponent t value of 2.0 +/- 0.2 at room temperature and 2.6 +/-0.2 at 5 K. The increase of t is ascribed to the influence of the grain boundaries on the electrical conduction process at low temperature.

Self-assembled multilayer graphene oxide membrane and carbon nanotubes synthesized using a rare form of natural graphite

The fabrication of flexible multilayer graphene oxide (GO) membrane and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) using a rare form of high-purity natural graphite, vein graphite, is reported for the first time. Graphite oxide is synthesized using vein graphite following Hummer's method. By facilitating functionalized graphene sheets in graphite oxide to self-assemble, a multilayer GO membrane is fabricated. Electric arc discharge is used to synthesis CNTs from vein graphite. Both multilayer GO membrane and CNTs are investigated using microscopy and spectroscopy experiments, i.e., scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), core level photoelectron spectroscopy, and C K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy (NEXAFS), to characterize their structural and topographical properties. Characterization of vein graphite using different techniques reveals that it has a large number of crystallites, hence the large number of graphene sheets per crystallite, preferentially oriented along the (002) plane. NEXAFS and core level spectra confirm that vein graphite is highly crystalline and pure. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and C 1s core level spectra show that oxygen functionalities (-C-OH, -CO,-C-O-C-) are introduced into the basal plane of graphite following chemical oxidation. Carbon nanotubes are produced from vein graphite through arc discharge without the use of any catalyst. HRTEM confirm that multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWNTs) are produced with the presence of some structure in the central pipe. A small percentage of single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs) are also produced simultaneously with MWNTs. Spectroscopic and microscopic data are further discussed here with a view to using vein graphite as the source material for the synthesis of carbon nanomaterials. © 2013 American Chemical Society.