 Structural defects

 Geometrical defects
 Cosmetic defects
 Deviation in reinforcement orientation and
content
 Voids
 Incomplete impregnation and mould filling
 Variation in constituent properties
 Most detrimental to the structural capability of a
composite is when the actual fibre orientation does
not correspond to the intended orientation – may
result in drastic effect towards the mechanical
properties.
 The waviness of the fibre will results to the same
effect.
 Both these defect types may be introduced during
manufacturing of preform and prepreg or during
conformation of the material to the mould, but may
also occur due to fibre washout during impregnation
(happens in RIM).
 Another reinforcement-related defect is variation in
fibre content (both within a component and between
components)
 This type of defect is more common with
thermoset matrices due to in-process
impregnation and low resin viscosity but also
possible to happen in the thermoplastic
composites system.
 This types of defect happens when there are
uneven pressure distribution.
 All composites, regardless of constituents, raw
material forms and manufacturing technique does
contain microscopic voids.
 Microscopic voids happens due to air entrapment in
tightly compressed fibre yarns, volatiles from resin,
air in the resin (from mixing) and incomplete
consolidation.
 Acceptable amounts of voids are typically in the
range 1-5 volume % where the lower figure are
required in aerospace applications and the higher
figure – lightly stressed applications or components
(no catastrophic failure).
 Voids are highly unwanted – cause stress
concentrations and act as crack initiator.
 In techniques where the reinforcement is
impregnated as part of the process – void content is
the highest.
 The reason:
◦ Air entrapped in the reinforcement
◦ Air accidentally whipped into the resin during mixing
or impregnation
 In wet layup, vigorous rolling is crucial to work
out voids.
 In RTM – easy to entrapped voids due to mould
filling is too rapid – reduce mould filling or
mould design should be considered.
 In filament winding and pultrusion also present
the problem of air entrapment – wetting of the
reinforcement and crosslinking process.
 Other way of reducing the void content is via
vacuum bagging system.
 Although certain degree of voids is tolerated,
dry spots and unfilled sections of the mould
are usually unacceptable.
 Dry spots – large section of un-impregnated
reinforcement detectable with naked eye.
 In RTM/ RIM – happens resulting to high
injection rate, merging flow front entrapping
air, too high resin viscosity, premature resin
gelation etc.
 These problem may also come from
fundamental problem – location and number of
injection; process design.
 Most common for any process – premature
gelation of the resin (thermoset) and low
temperature and pressure for thermoplastics.
 Resin properties are highly dependent on
processing conditions and in particular the
temperature history.
 Thermosets; crosslinked at shortest time with
specific temperature end up having low cross
linked density – inferior stiffness, strength etc.
 Excessive temperature – leads to thermal
degradation especially for thick article.
 Semi-crystalline thermoplastics – cooling rate
determines degree of crystallinity.
 Higher degree of crystallinity – stiffer matrix;
higher temperature tolerance but lower strain
to failure.
 Interphase between fibre and matrix.
 Poor fibre-matrix interaction may cause by
incomplete fibre wetting, contaminants,
moisture, polarity and others leading to poor
interfacial bonding and microcracking.
 The use of the polymer matrix according to the
suggested shelf life and environment (depending
on the material behaviours).
 In techniques where the reinforcement is
impregnated as part of the process there is a
potential for damaging the fibre – during
handling, conformation (wet layup, RTM & RIM)
and guidance (filament winding & pultrusion).
 Weak product design – leading to fractured fibre
at sharp corners and edges.
 Geometrical defect – component warpage and
angles or thicknesses deviating from
specifications.
 Warped – due to the layup accidentally being
unbalanced and due to residual stresses arising
from differential shrinkage caused by spatial
difference in temperature history.
 Happens obviously in flat laminates especially
thermoplastic product.
 Can be reduce through a general reduction in the
maximum processing temperature and through
reduction of spatial temperature differences.
 Geometrical deviations – resulting to unfitting
component during the assembly of the product.
 A deviation in component thickness; thickness is
less than specified – flexural stiffness may suffer
significantly; excessive component thickness –
too low fibre content, high void content which
may also cause failure to the component.
 Thus, to solve this problem the processing
condition need to be well control such as the
pressure used for compression moulding and
vacuum bagging; the injection pressure and time
and etc.
 The most common cosmetic defect – poor
surface finish & discoloration (often symptoms of
structural defects).
 Cause – poor mould finish (mould surface not
polished or damage).
 Dry spot may cause surface problem and
wrinkles in vacuum bags and diaphragms are
also detrimental to good surface finish.
 The relevant properties may be physical, mechanical, thermal
optical, electrical and environment in nature.
 In general, a proper test report should include:
◦ Identification of material tested – including constituent types,
fractions, supplier & etc.
◦ Description of how the composites was manufactured
◦ Description of how the specimen was prepared
◦ Description of how the specimen was conditioned prior to test –
ageing and etc
◦ Specimen dimensions
◦ Test standard designation (and possible deviations from that
standards)
◦ Equipment and fixture types
◦ Temperature and humidity during test
◦ Testing rate
◦ Failure mode
◦ Number of test specimen
◦ Average property, standard deviation and standard errors
◦ Date of the test