High-rate fabrication methods for carbon fiber-reinforced composites
- Zoltek Corp., St. Louis, MO (United States)
Carbon fiber reinforced composites (CFRCs) were developed for highly weight-critical aerospace applications. During the 25-year history of CFRCs, reduced costs of carbon fiber and fabrication methods have broadened the applications of CFRCs. Improved fabrication methods coupled with continued cost reductions of carbon fiber are enabling the next application areas of CFRC applications: civil construction and transportation. Carbon fiber-reinforced concrete provides increased strength and earthquake resistance to civil structures. Transportation applications, driven by new mandates for fuel economy and air quality, represent a huge market for strong, light CFRCs. Both of these new CFRC application areas are dependent upon the development of high-rate, low-cost fabrication methods to meet the demands for rapid, economical construction of large structures. This paper reports the development of two high-rate fabrication methods for producing economical structural composites for civil construction and transportation. Carbon-epoxy tubes for composite-confined concrete civil structures were formed by filament winding large, 320,000 filament, carbon fiber strands. This large-strand filament-winding method builds CFRC structures at rates of over 200 pounds of carbon fiber per hour, Continuous Resin Transfer Molding (CRTM{trademark}) produces constant cross-section composite beams from woven or stitched fiber preforms, fiber tows, and injected resin. Composite channels produced by CRTM{trademark} are being evaluated as replacement for steel channel sections commonly used in truck frame rails. These composite beams represent a weight savings of up to 400 lbs per truck -- a savings that translates directly into payload.
- OSTI ID:
- 412064
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-960310-; TRN: 96:005072-0029
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 41. international symposium of the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering and exhibition: materials and processes challenges - aging systems, affordability, alternative applications, Anaheim, CA (United States), 25-28 Mar 1996; Other Information: PBD: 1996; Related Information: Is Part Of Society for the advancement of material and process engineering. 41st International SAMPE symposium and exhibition, Volume 41, Books 1 and 2; PB: 1844 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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