Cellulose nanofibrils offer interesting potential as a native fibrous constituent of mechanical performance exceeding the plant fibers in current use for commercial products. In the present study, wood nanofibrils are used to prepare porous cellulose nanopaper of remarkably high toughness. Nanopapers of different porosities and from nanofibrils of different molar mass are prepared. Uniaxial tensile tests are performed and structure-property relationships are discussed. The high toughness of highly porous nanopaper is related to the nanofibrillar network structure and high mechanical nanofibril performance. Also, molar mass correlates with tensile strength. This indicates that nanofibril fracture controls ultimate strength. Furthermore, the large strain-to-failure means that mechanisms, such as interfibril slippage, also contributes to inelastic deformation in addition to deformation of the nanofibrils themselves.

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High hardness, high elastic modulus, low friction characteristics, high wear and corrosion resistance, chemical inertness and thermal stability are factors that make diamond like carbon (DLC) coatings the subject of many studies. For the same reasons they also seem suitable for use in, amongst others, machine components and cutting tools. While most studies in literature focus on the influence of coatings on wear and friction in boundary lubrication and pure sliding contacts, few studies can be found concerning rolling and sliding EHL friction, especially in the mixed and full film regime. In the present paper tests are carried out in a Wedeven Associates Machine (WAM) tribotester where an uncoated ball and disc pair is compared to the case of coated ball against uncoated disc, coated disc against uncoated ball, and coated disc against coated ball. The tests are conducted at two different temperatures and over a broad range of slide to roll ratios and entrainment speeds. The results are presented as friction maps

An experimental investigation is performed and analyzed in order to examine the onset and evolution of damage processes in thin isotropic paper sheets made of mechanical pulp. A microscopy technique has been used to estimate the relative fraction of bond and fibre breaks. It has been found that the active damage mechanism is bond failure, hence supporting the assumption of an isotropic scalar valued damage variable.All experiments have been performed by simultaneous with the mechanical loading monitoring the acoustic emission activity. Three different experimental setups have been designed offering the possibility to analyze the influence of stress gradients, as well as different levels of the ratios between the in-plane normal stresses, on the onset of damage. It is concluded that stress gradients in the paper specimens have a large influence on the onset of damage. When stress gradients are present a non-local theory has to be used in the analysis. In this way compliance with an isotropic damage criterion is achieved. The characteristic length, determining the gradient sensitivity, has been found to be of the same order of magnitude as some average fibre length.To study the evolution of the damage processes, wide and short specimens have been loaded in tension resulting in stable damage processes. With the assumptions made regarding the mechanical behavior of the paper material after onset of damage, the damage and the cumulative number of acoustic events curve correlates very well. The experimentally obtained data is used to determine material parameters in a proposed damage evolution law. It is found that the assumed damage evolution law can, for isotropic paper materials with bond rupture as the prevalent failure mechanism, be further simplified as only one specific material dependent damage evolution parameter has to be determined in experiments.

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Continuum damage mechanics (CDM) is used to describe the post-elastic behavior of low-basis-weight paper. The relevance of undertaking studies of the mechanical behavior of low-basis-weight paper is that it enables characterization, optimization and quality control. In accordance with a CDM theory, an internal variable is introduced that represent the degree to which the material has degraded in a continuum sense and details inherent in a damage evolution law contain information about the rupture mechanism. To account for long ranging micro-structural effects, because of the fiber structure in the paper material, a non-local formulation of the constitutive law is considered. Of particular interest is the fracture toughness of the material, i.e. the ability to resist further crack propagation, as it is often a good measure of flaw tolerance and durability in the context of paper. The constitutive model discussed is verified against tensile tests on rectangular paper specimens containing pre-fabricated cracks. Acoustic emission was used to study the damage evolution in paper specimens during tensile loading. An orthotropic material description has been utilized. The model is contrasted with a purely isotropic formulation. It seems that for the type of problem analyzed in this work, an orthotropic material description does not significantly improve the predictive capability as compared to an isotropic formulation. It is concluded that the model can be used to evaluate the influence of arbitrary defect geometries, defect size and loading conditions and can easily be incorporated into a finite element code.

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