Elias A. Toubia

Cone calorimeter and room corner fire testing of balsa wood core/phenolic composite skin sandwich panels

Polymer composite sandwich core panels are of interest for lightweight construction and portable shelter use. In this article, material selection and construction design were considered for an application which required a high level of fire safety performance. Phenolic + fiberglass skin composites with balsa wood core sandwich panels were constructed and first screened for fire performance with the cone calorimeter (ASTM E1354) at different heat fluxes. From these data, fire testing in the room corner test (ISO 9705) was conducted. The results indicated that these composites could only pass the room corner test if an aluminum skin was used to provide some additional fire protection to the underlying composite. Furthermore, it was found that cone calorimeter testing at very high heat flux (100 kW/m2) was not always indicative of fire performance in the room corner test. How the aluminum skin was mechanically attached to the panel as well as underlying composite construction played an important role in the full-scale fire test results.

Efficient Design and Analysis of Lightweight Reinforced Core Sandwich and PRSEUS Structures

Design, analysis, and sizing methods for two novel structural panel concepts have been developed and incorporated into the HyperSizer Structural Sizing Software. Reinforced Core Sandwich (RCS) panels consist of a foam core with reinforcing composite webs connecting composite facesheets. Boeing s Pultruded Rod Stitched Efficient Unitized Structure (PRSEUS) panels use a pultruded unidirectional composite rod to provide axial stiffness along with integrated transverse frames and stitching. Both of these structural concepts are ovencured and have shown great promise applications in lightweight structures, but have suffered from the lack of efficient sizing capabilities similar to those that exist for honeycomb sandwich, foam sandwich, hat stiffened, and other, more traditional concepts. Now, with accurate design methods for RCS and PRSEUS panels available in HyperSizer, these concepts can be traded and used in designs as is done with the more traditional structural concepts. The methods developed to enable sizing of RCS and PRSEUS are outlined, as are results showing the validity and utility of the methods. Applications include several large NASA heavy lift launch vehicle structures.

Experimental Evaluation of Structural Steel Coating Systems

AbstractDepartments of transportation (DOTs) currently use the conventional three-coat system as the predominant choice for the corrosion protection of steel bridge structures. Eliminating one step in the coating process could potentially save time and cost associated with lane closures and traffic control costs. This research paper evaluates several two-coat systems based on the zinc-rich primer and polysiloxane topcoat technology. All samples were conditioned and coated in a state-of-the-art, climate-controlled paint booth, simulating common field ENvironmental CONditions (ENCON) (ENCON 1: 25 °C/50% RH, ENCON 2: 10 °C/40%RH, and ENCON 3: 32°C/80% RH). Accelerated weathering tests were performed on 435 coated samples (scribed and unscribed). Regardless of the ENCON considered, the performance of the two-coat system is very comparable to the three-coat system. This coating technology offers much improved performance with quicker set time and better adhesion pull-off strength. Considering its durability an...

Degradation mechanisms of balsa wood and PVC foam sandwich core composites due to freeze/thaw exposure in saline solution

Structural engineers commonly use balsa wood and PVC foam as core materials for sandwich composite structures. These structures are frequently exposed to thermal cycling in sea water. The long-term performance and damage mechanism of these composite sandwich structures under such environmental conditions are still unclear. To simulate these effects, sandwich panels using balsa wood (SB100) and foam core (Airex C70.55) with fiber glass/vinyl ester face sheets were exposed to 100 days of freeze/thaw exposure (−20℃ to 20℃). The freezing and thawing occurred in presence of a saline solution. A total of 150 samples were tested for core shear, core compression, and peel tests. Results confirmed that exposure reduced the balsa wood core shear strength by 14%, compression strength by 36%, and compression modulus by 33%. Interestingly, the PVC foam core shear modulus increased by 25% after exposure, whereas the compression modulus reduced by 12%. Simulated lifetime core shear fatigue curves were developed and evaluated. Additional testing techniques such as scanning electron microscopy, optical microscopy, dynamical mechanical analysis, and X-ray computed tomography were used to rationalize the static and fatigue behavior of the core materials.

Failure mechanism of woven roving fabric/vinyl ester composites in freeze–thaw saline environment

This experimental study investigates the degradation mechanisms of a glass fiber-reinforced plastic material commonly used in civil engineering applications. A substantial reduction in tensile, shear, and compression properties was observed after 100 days of freeze–thaw cycling in saline environment (−20℃ to 20℃). Non-destructive inspection techniques were progressively conducted on unexposed (ambient condition) and exposed (conditioned) specimens. The dynamic mechanical analysis showed permanent decrease in storage modulus that was attributed to physical degradation of the polymer and/or fiber–matrix interface. This indicated the formation of internal cracks inside the exposed glass fiber-reinforced plastic laminate. The 3D X-ray tomography identified preferred damage sites related to intralaminar and interlaminar cracks. The ultrasonic C-scan and optical microscopy showed the nature of the damage and fibers fracture. The thermal cycling events degraded the matrix binding the warp and fill fibers, thus impairing the structural integrity of the cross-ply laminate. The result of this work could benefit a multi-scale durability and damage tolerance model to predict the material state of composite structures under typical service environments.