Corrugation Reinforced Composites: A Method for Filling Holes in Material‐Property Space

Abstract

Material-property space is filled with holes representing desirable combinations of properties, such as high strength and high necking strain. One way to fill those holes is to use architectured materials. In this work, Finite Element Modeling (FEM) simulations are performed to evaluate composites with a corrugated reinforcement architecture across a range of volume fractions and corrugation heights for a model copper-steel system. The corrugated reinforcement geometry shows large improvements in necking strain, which increases with corrugation height, without sacrificing strength, and fills a desirable region in material-property space. Additionally, it is found that the necking strain of a matrix material can be increased by adding a less ductile reinforcing material provided it has a highly corrugated geometry. The improvement in necking strain seen in these composites is attributed to a boost in work hardening that results from an evolving reinforcement alignment as the corrugation unbends.

Corrugation Reinforced Architectured Materials by Direct Laser Hardening: A Study of Geometrically Induced Work Hardening in Steel

“…With other combinations of matrix and reinforcement, it is possible to introduce a much more important effect on work hardening evolution thanks to the unbending process. The work of Fraser et al [ 40 ] confirms with FEM simulation that an increase in work hardening rate may happen during tensile tests in a system of copper matrix and steel reinforcement. This inspiring result shows that a more obvious difference in strength between matrix and reinforcement may bring more obvious architecture effect, but likely at the cost of interfacial strength.…”

“…The configuration with corrugated reinforcement has a lower strength than straight reinforced configuration because the reinforcement is less aligned to the load direction. [ 40 ] During the uniaxial tensile test, the loading on fragments of corrugation can be divided into two perpendicular components: a component parallel to the fragment that accounts for its stretching and a perpendicular one responsible for unbending the fragment so that it becomes parallel with the longitudinal loading direction. The unbending process increases the strength of the whole sample with this change in reinforcement direction because the reinforcement is more and more aligned to the load direction.…”

“…Thill et al [ 38 ] and Dayyani et al [ 39 ] studied the tensile behavior of the isolated corrugated core of different fiber/epoxy composites and found that strain hardening decreased in the beginning, followed by an increase due to the unbending process, and then decreased as classical stress–strain response. Fraser et al [ 40 ] investigated a copper–steel system and the effect of geometric parameters of corrugated reinforcements. Bouaziz [ 5 ] simulated the tensile test of unit cell matrix reinforced with corrugation with different yield stresses and perfect plastic behavior.…”

Behavior by design made possible by additive manufacturing: The case of a whistle-blower mechanical response

“…Such strut geometry can be seen as a sensor in case of excessive loading conditions. Corrugated struts provide a tunable strain-hardening through the concept of geometrical strainhardening, initially introduced in [5] and further developed by others [3,6,7]. This can be considered as a waiting element.…”

Increasing Necking Strain through Corrugation: Identifying Composite Systems That Can Benefit from Corrugated Geometry

“…Fraser et al [ 24 ] utilized FEM simulations to compare the unbending behavior of an isolated corrugation to that of a corrugation embedded in a matrix material, exploring how the unbending behavior was impacted by the matrix material and the geometry of the corrugation. Another investigation [ 25 ] illustrated how corrugation-reinforced composites can be used to fill a hole in the material property space characterized by high strength and high necking strain. The purpose of this paper is to further explore the effect of the plastic material properties of the matrix and reinforcement components on the necking strain of these materials and ultimately establish guidelines for determining composite systems that will benefit from corrugated reinforcement architecture.…”