Gerard Edwards

Thermo-mechanical Responses of Fiber-reinforced Epoxy Composites Exposed to High Temperature Environments. Part I: Experimental Data Acquisition

This first part of a series of papers on the thermo-mechanical responses of fiber-reinforced composites at elevated temperatures reports the experimental results required as input data in order to validate the kinetic, heat transfer, and thermo-mechanical models being developed and to be discussed in subsequent papers. Here the experimental techniques used for the determination of physical, thermal, and mechanical properties and their significance for particular models are discussed. The fire retardant system used to improve the fire performance of glass fiber-reinforced epoxy composites is a combination of a cellulosic charring agent and an interactive intumescent, melamine phosphate. Thermogravimetry is used to obtain kinetic parameters and to evaluate the temperature-dependent physical properties such as density, thermal conductivity, and specific heat capacity, determined using other techniques. During flammability evaluation under a cone calorimeter at 50 kW/m2 heat flux, thermocouples are used to measure temperatures through the thicknesses of samples. To investigate their thermo-mechanical behavior, the composites are exposed to different heating environments and their residual flexural modulus after cooling to ambient temperatures determined. At a low heating rate of 10°C/min and convective conditions, there was a minimal effect of fire retardant additives on mechanical property retention, indicating that fire retardants have no effect on the glass transition temperature of the resin. On the other hand, the fire-retarded coupons exposed to a radiant heat from cone calorimeter, where the heating rate is about 200°C/min, showed 60% retention of flexural modulus after a 40-s exposure, compared to 20% retention observed for the control sample after cooling specimens to ambient temperatures.

Anisotropic crystallographic properties, strain, and their effects on band structure of m-plane GaN on LiAlO2(100)

The m-plane GaN films grown on LiAlO2(100) by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition exhibit anisotropic crystallographic properties. The Williamson–Hall plots point out they are due to the different tilts and lateral correlation lengths of mosaic blocks parallel and perpendicular to GaN[0001] in the growth plane. The symmetric and asymmetric reciprocal space maps reveal the strain of m-plane GaN to be biaxial in-plane compress exx=−0.79% and ezz=−0.14% with an out-of-plane dilatation eyy=0.38%. This anisotropic strain further separates the energy levels of top valence band at Γ point. The energy splitting as 37meV as well as in-plane polarization anisotropy for transitions are found by the polarized photoluminescence spectra at room temperature.

Modification of the valence band structures of polar and nonpolar plane wurtzite-GaN by anisotropic strain

The influence of anisotropic strain on the valence band structure and related properties, including excitonic transition energies, transition polarization selection rules, band-edge hole effective masses, and exciton reduced effective masses, of polar and nonpolar plane GaN are systematically investigated using the well-known k⋅p Hamiltonian approach. We re-examine the band deformation potentials D3 and D4, and interband hydrostatic deformation potentials a1 and a2, and find that they take the values 9.4, −4.7, −3.0, and −12.4 eV, respectively. In order to correctly interpret the optical properties of GaN, the spin-orbit coupling effect cannot be neglected. Our numerical calculations show that pure linear polarization light emissions and absorptions can be obtained. In addition, the two topmost valence subbands can be effectively separated to reduce the band-edge density of state by manipulating the strain states in GaN epilayers, which is favorable for laser diode design. Furthermore, the band-edge hole ...

Fiber-reinforced epoxy composites exposed to high temperature environments. Part II: Modeling mechanical property degradation

This article is part of a series on the thermo-mechanical responses of fiber-reinforced composites at elevated temperatures and it follows the first part containing experimental results. A flame-retardant system consisting of a cellulosic charring agent and an interactive intumescent additive (melamine phosphate) has been used in order to improve the post-fire mechanical performance of glass fiber-reinforced epoxy composites. The effect of one-sided radiant heat on the residual flexural stiffness of laminate coupons exposed to incident heat fluxes of 25 and 35 kW m-2 was investigated. The flame-retarded coupons retained a higher percentage of their original room temperature flexural modulus after heat exposure while the control specimens showed inferior material property retention over the same exposure periods. A heat transfer (thermal) model based on Henderson’s equation is used to predict the through thickness temperature profiles and subsequently the mass loss due to the resin matrix decomposition at elevated temperatures. The theoretical results from the heat transfer model are validated against experimentally obtained data and then coupled with a mechanics model that describes material property-temperature dependence in order to predict the residual flexural stiffness, after heat damage. The accuracy of the thermo-mechanical model was validated against the experimental data and a good agreement was observed.

Biaxial and uniaxial strain effects on the ultraviolet emission efficiencies of AlxGa1−xN films with different Al concentrations

The influences of biaxial and uniaxial strain on the ultraviolet emission efficiencies of both c- and m-plane AlxGa1−xN films with different Al concentrations are investigated under the framework of k⋅p perturbation theory. The optimal high efficiency windows, for ultraviolet light emissions are quantitatively estimated. c-plane AlxGa1−xN modified by uniaxial strain, shows more advantages over biaxial-strained AlxGa1−xN. This is due to the relatively more flexible tuning range and the advantage of obtaining pure linear polarization, which can be utilized to design polarized emission devices. For m-plane AlxGa1−xN, there are always in-plane polarized emissions under both biaxial and uniaxial strain conditions, thus, it is more likely to obtain high surface emission efficiency.

Strain-modulated valence band engineering for enhancement of surface emission in polar and nonpolar plane AlN films

The k⋅p perturbation theory is adopted to calculate the strain-modulated excitonic transition energies and their polarization properties in c- and m-plane AlN. The two topmost valence subbands exchange their band characteristics at the degenerate point where ezz=0.98% and exx=eyy=−1.70%. The surface emission efficiency of c-plane AlN films can be dramatically enhanced with ezz>0.98% (exx=eyy<−1.70%), where the lowest excitonic transition is predominantly z-polarized. Besides, nonpolar plane (m- or a-plane) AlN experiencing anisotropic in-plane strain can be chosen as a candidate for enhancing the surface emission efficiency by proper strain manipulation.

In-plane anisotropic photoluminescence of C-plane GaN under asymmetric biaxial strain

The effects of anisotropic strain on wurtzite GaN valence subbands are investigated both theoretically and experimentally. k•p perturbation theory reveals that the in-plane asymmetric strain not only affects the transition energies, but also determines the polarization properties, which is analyzed to be the essential cause of the optical anisotropy. Considerable in-plane anisotropy of strained C-plane GaN in polarized photoluminescence is reported. The experimental result in good agreement with theoretical study directly proves the strain effects on the transitions polarization states. The fine accordance of observed and simulated photoluminescence dependences on strain asymmetry degree demonstrates a primary realization of strain controlled optical anisotropy, and such modulation indicates the great potential of utilizing GaN-based semiconductors in polarization-sensitive optoelectronics.

Modelling flaming combustion in glass fibre-reinforced composite laminates:

A heat transfer model based on the well-known Henderson equation has been modified to allow for self-sustained ignition and the flaming combustion phenomena of E-glass fibre-reinforced epoxy composites to be predicted from first principles using known thermal-physical and thermodynamic data for their constituents. The modifications consider: (1) the assignment of thermodynamic conditions (e.g. ignition temperature and mass flux of volatiles) necessary and sufficient to trigger self-sustained ignition, and (2) the inclusion of an integrated loop allowing the heat energy generated from the flaming combustion process to be fed back into the burning laminate. The model compares moderately well with experimental results obtained from cone calorimetric measurements. The additional modelling capabilities considered in this study provide the basis for an analytical model that can more accurately predict the thermal response and flaming combustion of glass fibre-reinforced polymer composites exposed to a one-sided radiant heating environment in the presence of an ignition source.

Solving the PnP Problem for Visual Odometry – An Evaluation of Methodologies for Mobile Robots

The general procedure of visual odomentry (VO) for a mobile robot based on a monocular image stream can be subdivided into different subtasks. The minimal configuration of a VO framework illustrated in the following figure contains three major subtasks: feature handling, structure recovery and motion recovery. The motion recovery is solved by incorporation of general ideas from the fields of photogrammety and stereo vision, where homologous image information is used to derive the geometrical (epipolar) relations between two different images captured from different viewpoints.

Visual-Inertial 2D Feature Tracking based on an Affine Photometric Model

The robust tracking of point features throughout an image sequence is one fundamental stage in many different computer vision algorithms (e.g. visual modelling, object tracking, etc.). In most cases, this tracking is realised by means of a feature detection step and then a subsequent re-identification of the same feature point, based on some variant of a template matching algorithm. Without any auxiliary knowledge about the movement of the camera, actual tracking techniques are only robust for relatively moderate frame-to-frame feature displacements. This paper presents a framework for a visual-inertial feature tracking scheme, where images and measurements of an inertial measurement unit (IMU) are fused in order to allow a wider range of camera movements. The inertial measurements are used to estimate the visual appearance of a feature’s local neighbourhood based on a affine photometric warping model.