Description: There is growing demand for fibre-reinforced polymer composite materials for use in high performance applications. The main advantage of composite materials is the ability to tailor their properties to suit specific applications. Properties that can be adjusted include shear strength and modulus, impact strength, energy absorption, fatigue resistance, and facile detection and repair of damaged parts. Many of those properties are poorly realised in today’s materials. Auxetics are materials that exhibit an unexpected behaviour when they are subjected to mechanical stresses and strains, in that they become thicker in one or several of the perpendicular width-wise directions when exposed to a longitudinal load, thus possessing a negative Poisson’s ratio. Given this interesting behaviour, auxetic materials possess multiple unique material properties that contrast the traditional properties observed in classical composite material structures. This project focuses on investigating the effect of adding auxetic nanoparticles to the polymer resin system used in the construction of fibre-reinforced composite materials. The student will focus on exploring the effect that adding different degrees of auxetic nanoparticle to the resin system has on the bulk properties of the resin system itself, as well as fibre-reinforced plaques manufactured using the altered system. The project will span thermal analysis testing, mechanical testing and fibre-matrix interfacial testing.

Key Objectives: To understand the influence of nanoparticles on composite material performance. To understand the potential benefits of composite materials possessing auxetic behaviour. To characterise the effect of auxetic nano-particles on the mechanical properties of the composite. To assess the effect of auxetic nano-particles on the fibre-matrix interface.