It is shown that, under certain conditions, simultaneous improvement of vibration damping capacity and interlaminar fracture toughness in composite laminates can be achieved by using polymeric interleaves between the composite laminae. The specific case of Mode II interlaminar fracture toughness and flexural damping capacity of interleaved composite laminates is studied. Graphite/epoxy, E-glass/epoxy and E-glass/polyetherimide composite laminates with polymeric interleaves of several different thicknesses and materials were tested using both the end notch flexure (ENF) test for Mode II fracture toughness and the impulse-frequency response test for flexural damping capacity. The Mode II energy release rate GIIc for all three composites increased linearly with increasing interleaf thickness up to a critical thickness, then dropped off with further increases in thickness. The damping loss factor η for all three composites increased linearly with increasing interleaf thickness up to the maximum thickness. Analytical models for predicting the influence of interleaves on GIIc and η are developed, along with a hypothesis for the critical thickness effect with regard to fracture toughness.
Unidirectional carbon fiber composite material is one of the most common types of composites employed in vehicles, and its bending performance plays an important role in crash safety, especially in side pole impact. This study aimed to redesign one of the most important components of the side structure of a vehicle, the rocker panel, with unidirectional carbon fiber composite material. Our results show that it is not easy to acquire the same bending performance as that of a steel rocker panel by merely replacing it with carbon fiber material and increasing the wall thickness. Therefore, reinforcements were employed to improve the bending performance of the carbon fiber rocker panel, and a polypropylene reinforcement method achieved a weight reduction of 40.7% compared with high-strength steel.
Lithium−sulfur batteries (LSBs) have broad application prospects in high density energy storage. Nevertheless, LSBs present serious safety concerns and rapid capacity decay due to the flammability and contractility of commercial separators at high temperatures and lithium polysulfide (LiPSs) dissolution. In view of this, a multifunctional modified separator is developed by combining a commercial polypropylene (PP) separator with a polyimide (PI)-Super P functional coating and a rigid nonflammable PI matrix. This PI/PP/PI-Super P separator provides multiple advantages: (i) strong physical blocking and chemical trapping/conversion ability for LiPSs, (ii) high flame-retardancy and dimensional stability, and (iii) superior electrolyte wettability and high efficiency lithium dendritic growth inhibition. As a result, the LSBs assembled with PI/PP/PI-Super P separators and pure sulfur cathodes exhibit an ultrahigh discharge specific capacity of 1611.8 mAh/g and excellent cycling performance (the average capacity attenuation within 100 cycles at 1 C is 0.469%) at 80 °C, which exceed the advanced results reported previously. More importantly, even when sulfur and organic electrolyte are adsorbed on PI/ PP/PI-Super P, the modified separator still shows good flame retardancy. Additionally, this modified separator is also suitable for LSBs with high sulfur loading. This work offers an innovative design concept for safe and high-performance LSBs.
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