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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: GR/K04699/01
Title: PROPERTY-PROCESS-FIBRE DISTRIBUTION RELATIONSHIPS IN FIBRE-REINFORCED COMPOSITES
Principal Investigator: Summerscales, Professor J
Other Investigators:
Guild, Professor FJ Wright, Professor D
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department: Mechanical & Marine Engineering
Organisation: University of Plymouth
Scheme: Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts: 05 December 1994 Ends: 04 June 1998 Value (£): 87,654
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Materials Characterisation
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Related Grants:
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
The importance of microstructural definition of fibre composite materials is becoming increasingly apparent. The relationships between both microstructure and manufacture, and microstructure and properties, must be investigated to allow useful development of manufacturing processes. In particular, the real materials used in industry are not idealised unidirectional arrays of fibres, but are fabric reinforcements with different weave styles and degrees of fibre crimp. The aim of the proposed work is to establish methods of quantitative definition of the microstructure of laminate plates (produced in resin transfer moulding flow studies for BRITE / EurAM II project BE5477). The microstructures will be measured using the Quantimet 570 analyser, which is fitted with a motorised stage permitting the automated acquisition of extensive data samples from the materials to enhance the prospect of correct definition in materials where the tow structure can be three orders of magnitude larger than the fibre diameter. This data will be quantified using special statistics (or similar techniques). Laminate properties will be measured and microstructure-property relationships will be sought. Quantitative process-microstructure relationships will be sought for the qualitative flow results from BE5477. Correlation of results will lead to the development of property-process-microstructure relationships.
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Organisation Website: http://www.plym.ac.uk