Sharif Digital Repository

In this study, zirconia antistatic coatings were synthesized by a simple dip coating sol-gel route on glass substrates, then applied to polymer-based composites to potentially improve their dust or water repellent capabilities. The coating solution contained a precursor (ZrCl4), solvent (isopropanol) and coupling agent. FTIR spectra confirmed ZrO2 and ZrO compounds in both solution and antistatic coating. FE-SEM images indicated ZrO2 fibers’ thickness was controlled by changing ZrCl4 concentration (150 g–15 g ZrCl4/l) or relative humidity (20%–60%) during coating drying. Fibers grew thicker when decreasing the former or increasing the latter. The surface electrical resistivity for all... 

Flexible and lightweight fiber-shaped micro-supercapacitors have attracted tremendous attention as next-generation portable electronic devices, due to their high flexibility, tiny volume, and wearability. Herein, we successfully fabricated a ternary binder-free nanocomposite of MnO2/PEDOT:PSS-rGO on a carbon fiber substrate for application in high performance fiber-shaped micro-supercapacitors. The synergistic effects of the different components in the fiber-shaped electrode help to deliver a high specific capacitance of 2.9 F cm-2 (194 F cm-3 and 550 mF cm-1) at a current density of 5 mA cm-2 and a long cycle life with 95% capacitance retention after 5000 cycles in 1 M Na2SO4 electrolyte. A... 

Following our previous work on morphology, corrosion resistance and thermal properties of unsaturated polyester (UP)/nanoclay composites, the effect of electron beam (EB) irradiation on mechanical properties of UP/nanoclay composites with various nanoclay contents is investigated in this work. Moreover, influence of EB irradiation with doses of 100, 500 and 1000 kGy on tensile properties and hardness of nanocomposite was examined. FTIR spectroscopy was employed to examine the effect of irradiation on chemical structure of polymer. EB irradiation up to 500 kGy led to the improvement of tensile strength and hardness of the samples. The best mechanical properties were observed for the... 

Ammonium polyphosphate (APP) is one of the most widely used halogen-free flame retardant, added in various resins to improve the fire properties, such as flame and smoke spread ratings and LOI, of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites. This paper experimentally investigates the effects of using APP, as a fire-retardant filler, on mechanical properties (i.e. ultimate tensile, flexural, and bond strength) of glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) and carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites. Based on two fiber types (i.e. carbon and glass) and three different APP mass fractions in resin (i.e. 0, 20, and 40% of total weight of matrix), six sets of specimens were prepared for each... 

This chapter defines rapid manufacturing (RM) as a technique for manufacturing solid objects by the sequential delivery of energy and/or material to specified points in space. Current practice is to control the manufacturing process by using a computer-generated mathematical model. This chapter compares the large speed and cost advantages of RM to alternative polymer or metal manufacturing techniques such as powder metallurgy manufacturing or die casting. Moreover, the RM as an application of solid freeform fabrication for direct manufacturing of goods is addressed. Unlike methods such as computer numerical control (CNC) milling, these techniques allow the fabricated parts to be of high... 

This study represents an effort to predict the bearing strength, failure modes, and failure load of bolted joints in foam-core sandwich composites. The studied joints have been used in a light full composite airplane. By using solid laminates, a new design for the joint zone is developed. These solid laminates include a number of glass plies with total thickness equal to core thickness. The effect of solid laminate size and interface angle of foam-solid laminate in the bonding zone on the bearing strength, failure loads and type of modes are investigated. The numerical study is performed using 3D FEM in ANSYS commercial code. Tsai-Wu failure criterion is used in the failure analysis. The... 

In this research an intelligent emotional learning controller, Takagi- Sugeno- Kang (TSK) is applied to govern the dynamics of a novel Ionic-Polymer Metal Composite (IPMC) actuated manipulator. Ionic-Polymer Metal Composites are active actuators that show very large deformation in existence of low applied voltage. In this research, a new IPMC actuator is considered and applied to a 2-dof miniature manipulator. This manipulator is designed for miniature tasks. The control system consists of a set of neurofuzzy controller whose parameters are adapted according to the emotional learning rules, and a critic with task to assess the present situation resulted from the applied control action in... 

The impact strength of poly(methyl methacrylate)/caibon (long) fibre composites for denture prosthesis applications was improved by fibre surface treatment. The carbon fibre surfaces were modified by Nd:YAG laser irradiation at 1064 nm wavelength. Laser light intensity was adjusted at 100 mj per pulse that only changed the fibre surface roughness and did not lead to fibre rupture, as verified by scanning electron microscopy. Increased surface roughness of the fibres improved the adhesion of poly(methyl methacrylate) to the fibre surface. Adhesion between the fibres and poly(methyl methacrylate) was evaluated by a tear-off method and by scanning electron microscopy. The results also suggest... 

Fiber reinforced materials are widely used in many industrial structures including automotive, aviation, and civil due to their lower weights compared to metal structures. Full-composite body structures, especially in automotive and aviation applications, are becoming a proper replacement for current metal ones. For this reason, damage of such structures subjected to impact is a crucial case study in current research. The typical types of damages are mainly caused during production, repair, maintenance, or by particle crashes during function, and collisions between different structures. In this paper, four different fiber reinforced composite plates are studied after being impacted by a... 

Reinforced concrete columns with insufficient transverse steel reinforcement are not capable to dissipate seismic energy due to lack of necessary ductility. In this research, six RC columns with poor transverse reinforcements are tested under cyclic and axial loads as control columns and retrofitted ones. Prestressed and non-pre-stressed CFRP strips used as external transverse reinforcement to evaluate the benefits of active and passive confinement. Results indicate that additional confinement due to the use of CFRP strips enhances the strength, ductility and energy dissipation capacity of columns. The advantages of active confinement versus passive confinement are demonstrated too. © 2006... 

In this study, a numerical study on failure assessment and stress distribution on the adhesive region in a composite T-joint under bending load case is investigated using cohesive zone method (CZM). The Finite Element Model (FEM) has been verified with experimental results. To study the load transfer capability of the T-joint, five different adhesives are considered in the adhesive region and the effect of geometrical parameters such as stringer thickness, corner radius, and adherend thickness as well as micromechanical properties of reinforced fiber composite adherends are investigated. Effective properties of two composite adherends including Carbon-Epoxy (IM7/8552) and Glass-Epoxy... 

Carbon fiber (CF) as a multifunctional material with superb performance in aviation industry has serious drawback such as impedance mismatch which restricted the capability of using it as microwave absorber materials. In this research, a novel hierarchical carbon fiber@La0.7Sr0.3MnO@NiO (CF/LS/N) composite was facilely and successfully synthesized via sol-gel and subsequent hydrothermal reactions. The structural, morphological, magnetic and electromagnetic behavior of the composite were precisely evaluated via XRD, FESEM, XPS, VSM and VNA analysis. According to the systematic evaluation results, the synergistic positive effect of adding NiO nanoparticles is revealed in improving the... 

Recently, preparation of lightweight absorbers with high performance capability are urgently needed for practical demanded in order to solve the severe electromagnetic pollution. In the present study, two different composites (Fe3O4/carbon fiber and Fe3O4/rGO) were uniformly incorporated into resin epoxy matrix to obtain single and double layer X-band absorber with 20 wt% filler loading. Each of the composites were prepared via solvothermal process. According to the results, the minimum reflection loss values for each single layer Fe3O4/carbon fiber and Fe3O4/rGO absorber were −15 dB (3 mm thickness and 1.5 GHz bandwidth) and −50 dB (3 mm thickness and 4 GHz bandwidth) respectively. By... 

Seven half-scale reinforced concrete (RC) columns with supporting beam were experimentally studied under combined axial and lateral cyclic loading. The specimens were categorized in two groups based on reinforcement ratios. Three specimens were strengthened with carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) and glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) sheets. Other specimens were strengthened using a high strength mortar reinforced with textile mesh (textile reinforced concrete (TRC)). Strengthening of specimens were carried out using a vertical layer and a horizontal layer of FRP sheet or two vertical and two horizontal layers of textile meshes for TRC specimens. Since the weight of each layer of... 

This paper aims at investigating the seismic behavior of strengthened reinforced concrete (RC) shear walls using a 3D finite element analysis. A series of four different configurations of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites and four different schemes of steel elements are utilized to compare the two methods of retrofitting RC shear walls with similar dimensions and reinforcement ratios. Nonlinear simulations of the RC shear walls are conducted under the action of lateral cyclic loading in ABAQUS Explicit software. In addition, the numerical modeling for RC walls strengthened by CFRP composites as well as steel elements are validated according to the previous experimental... 

This paper presents the results of an experimental and analytical study on high-strength, reinforced-concrete (RC) columns with different levels of initial ductility enhanced with carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) wraps. Six square columns 260 mm wide and 1650 mm long were tested under constant axial load and reversed cyclic lateral load. The test specimens were divided into three groups. Groups I and II were designed and detailed according to the requirements of American Concrete Institute ACI318-02 for intermediate-moment frames. Group I was wrapped with CFRP, group II was control specimens, and group III was designed and detailed according to the requirements of ACI318-02 for... 

Convenient medical diagnostics and treatments can replace conventional healthcare procedures because of their fast and profitable applications with reduced infection risk. Meanwhile, early diagnosis of cancer is a leading research subject due to the high fatality rate of the disease and being a vital precursor in the treatment effectiveness. Electrochemical-based micro-biosensors are the best candidates for measuring particular biomarker concentrations in body fluids. To address this need, we used a simple fabrication approach to develop an effective immunosensor for the early detection of cancer, in particular prostate cancer. The carbon fibers, obtained from the electrospinning technique,... 

The increasing energy demand for next-generation portable and miniaturized electronics has drawn tremendous attention to develop microscale energy storage and conversion devices with light weight and flexible characteristics. Herein, we report the preparation of flower-like cobalt vanadium selenide/nickel copper selenide (CoVSe/NiCuSe) microspheres with three-dimensional hierarchical structure of micropore growth on copper wire for a flexible fiber microsupercapacitor (microSC) and overall water splitting. The CoV-LDH microspheres are anchored on the dendrite-like NiCu nanostructured Cu wire using a hydrothermal method (CoV-LDH/NiCu@CW). The sulfidation and selenization of CoV-LDH/NiCu was... 

Viral diseases have long been among the biggest challenges for healthcare systems around the world. The recent Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is an example of how complicated the situation can get if we are not prepared to combat a viral outbreak in time, which brings up the need for quick and affordable biosensing platforms and vast knowledge of potential antiviral effects and drug/gene delivery opportunities. The same challenges have also existed for nonviral immunogenic disorders. Nanomedicine is considered a novel candidate for effectively overcoming these worldwide challenges. Among the versatile nanomaterials commonly used in biomedical applications, graphene has recently...