It is the intent of this manuscript to provide a general treatment of braiding: past, present, and future. A history and evolution of braiding, braiding machinery, and related engineering developments is provided with emphasis on the design, manufacture, and analysis of braided fabrics and composites. Some recent developments are briefly described, including: 1. a composite braider with axial yarns which interlace with the helicals, and in which the helical yarns do not interlace with each other-a machine now under commercial development, 2. a new braided structure, called the true triaxial braid, produced by the new machine or by proper carrier loading on a conventional Maypole braider; and 3. a computer controlled take-up system using image analysis to monitor and control braid formation. Original work ongoing at Auburn University is described and involves Jacquard lace braids with open structures for use in composites, computer aided design (CAD), computer aided manufacturing (CAM), and analysis of ordinary and lace braids for composite applications. This paper is an expanded version of an invited presentation under the title "New Directions in Braiding" at a Fiber Society presentation in Bursa, Turkey, in the spring of 2010 [1]. Historical Context Braiding has been an important process throughout history of transforming fibers to more useful forms. It is arguably the first textile process, practiced by ancient civilizations [3]. Smaller, natural-fiber strands were braided in order to produce larger, stronger structures such as rope. Several online encyclopedias and other sources place the origins of braided rope at more than 17,000 years ago [4]. Ancient Chinese and Japanese documents record that braiding was in use before 4,000 BC [5-6]. Braiding in the context of ancient history is simply considered the oblique interlacing of three or more strands [6-7]. The original braiding machine predates the Industrial Revolution [8]. As mankind became more sophisticated, so did the methods of producing textiles, including braids. A modern definition of braiding is given by the German Industrial Standard DIN 60000 as "two or three-dimensional fabrics with even thread density
We investigate the potential use of line ratio diagnostics to evaluate electron temperature in either helium or helium seeded argon plasmas. Plasmas are produced in a helicon plasma source. A rf compensated Langmuir probe is used to measure both the electron temperature and plasma density while a spectrometer is used to measure He I line intensities from the plasma. For all plasma densities where the electron temperature remains at 5 ± 1 eV, three He line ratios are measured. Each experimental ratio is compared with the prediction of three different collisional radiative models. One of these models makes uses of recent R-matrix with pseudo-states calculations for collisional rate coefficients. A discussion related to the different observations and model predictions is presented.
Beginning with the maypole braiding process and its inherent constraints, we develop a design methodology for the realization of optimal braided composite lattice structures. This process requires novel geometric, mechanical, and optimization procedures for comprehensive design-ability, while taking full advantage of the capabilities of maypole braiding. The composite lattice structures are braided using yarns comprised of multiple prepreg carbon fiber (CF) tows that are themselves consolidated in a thin braided jacket to maintain round cross sections. Results show that optimal lattice-structure tubes provide significant improvement over smooth-walled CF tubes and nonoptimal lattices in torsion and bending, while maintaining comparable axial stiffness (AE).
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