High Performance Fibres and Composites

Introduction, history and development of high-performance fibres, Aramid fibres, polymerisation of meta and para-aramid, concept of liquid crystalline state, dry-jet wet spinning, structure and properties of aramids, applications, introduction about other high-performance fibre, UHMWPE, Aromatic polyester, PBO and PEEK.

Carbon fibre, Precursors for carbon fibre, Rayon based, PAN based, and pitch based carbon fibres, Stabilisation, Carbonisation and Graphitisation, Comparison of carbon fibres from precursors, Surface treatment of carbon fibre, properties and applications, Introduction to Glass fibre, Ceramic fibre, properties and applications.

Definitions, Composites, Reinforcements and matrices, Types of reinforcements, Types of matrices, Types of composites, Carbon Fibre composites, Properties of composites in comparison with standard materials, Applications of metal, ceramic and polymer matrix composites.

Hand and spray lay - up, injection molding, resin injection, filament winding, pultrusion, centrifugal casting and prepregs. Fibre/Matrix Interface, mechanical. Textile composites: Constituents of composites, roles of reinforcement, matrix and interface, different forms of reinforcement, Thermoplastic and thermoset matrices, 3D Woven Textile Structural Polymer Composites.

Design, Development, and Characterization of Advanced Textile Structural Hollow Composites, Testing of composites, tensile, bending and impact testing, three-point bending test, Izod and Charpy impact tests and their differences, Dynamic mechanical analysis, Storage and loss moduli and damping factor. Grand total of lectures required = 40