Flexural Testing of Steel Wire Composite Beams Made with Hardwire (trademark) Unidirectional Tape.

摘要

A new fiber material system, which can be used in composite manufacturing, trademarked Hardwire, was recently developed. This material is a high-strength, continuous steel wire tape which can be used in composite structures. This paper presents results of mechanical tests, conducted to determine material properties which could be used in the design of a novel joint concept. Numerous configurations of Hardwire were tested. The parameters included fiber packing density, fiber twist, and surface coating. Because of problems in developing compression failures in end and shear loaded compression configurations, flexural tests were conducted. A three-point bending test was used to determine the apparent strengths and bending stiffness of the various Hardwire composite forms. The modification of surface treatment with both the Jeffco18 and A174, resulted in improved strength and stiffness over unmodified wire. The amount of fiber twist significantly improved strengths. In fact, by increasing the lay length of the wire (decreasing the twist angle) failure mode changed from compressive buckling to a nearly ductile tensile failure.