Composite Materials for Sustainable and Eco-Friendly Material Development and Application: Composite Materials Developed from Naturally Derived Sources
Sponsored by: TMS Structural Materials Division, TMS: Composite Materials Committee
Program Organizers: Brian Wisner, Ohio University; Ioannis Mastorakos, Clarkson University; Muralidharan Paramsothy, NanoWorld Innovations; Simona Hunyadi Murph, Savannah River National Laboratory
Thursday 8:30 AM
March 23, 2023
Room: 31C
Location: SDCC
Session Chair: Brian Wisner, Ohio University
8:30 AM
Friction Extrusion of Lead-free Brass-graphite Composites Made from Powder Feedstock: Md Reza-E-Rabby1; Aditya Nittala1; Mayur Pole1; Todd Kidder1; Steffen Sigloch1; Keerti Kappagantula1; 1Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Currently, “lead-free” brass alloys (like C27450/C27451/C6930), used extensively in drinking water fixtures and automotive, electrical, and electronic applications contain maximum 0.25% lead to maintain mechanical performance and machinability. Adding graphite to brass as an alternative to lead, using casting, powder metallurgy, and extrusion methods, has been explored previously. However, all these methods have proven to be energy-, time-, and resource-intensive, while not enabling performance equivalent to that of C36000 brass. In this presentation, we demonstrate a one-step approach using friction extrusion to make lead-free brass/graphite components with mechanical performance equivalent to C36000. Manufacturing temperatures were maintained <600 °C and the average grain size in longitudinal direction of pure brass and brass-graphite composite wires were 2.8 μm and ~1 μm respectively. Our results show that the sub-micron graphite plays an important role in limiting process temperature and restraining grain growth during friction extrusion, thus reducing grain size in composites.
8:50 AM
Sustainable and Environmentally Friendly High Filler Content Coal Plastic Composites as Construction Materials: A Study of Mechanical Performance, Thermal Stability, and Flammability: Yahya Al-Majali1; Jason Trembly1; 1Ohio University
Polymer composites filled with natural fillers are widely used in many high-volume applications such as structural building materials owing to cost, performance, and environmental advantages. This study discusses the development of a more-sustainable and environmentally friendly coal plastic composites (CPCs) engineered as a better alternative for wood-plastic composites (WPCs). Mechanical and physical properties of CPC materials made with bituminous and sub-bituminous coals at varying coal content (40-60 wt.%) were evaluated and compared to predominant commercially available WPC decking products. Flexural results indicated CPC materials exceed the building code requirements and at the 60 wt.% possessed higher flexural strength compared to WPCs. CPC materials possessed better thermo-oxidative stability and flammability performance compared to HDPE and most WPC products. Further, CPC manufacturing requires 62% less energy usage and produces 44% less greenhouse gas emissions compared to WPCs. The presentation will also present recent results of scaling CPC manufacturing using commercial extrusion equipment.
9:10 AM
Fiber-reinforced Polymeric Composites for Low-carbon Construction Applications: Zhiye Li1; 1Stanford University
Buildings consume nearly half of the energy produced globally and are built with highly energy-intensive materials. An urgent global sustainability challenge in developing an innovative, low-carbon construction material is the lack of effort that takes advantage of polymer material technologies, clean energy, high-fidelity multi-physics models and life cycle assessment tools. The specific goals and corresponding methods are: (1) design polymer-based architectural composites that last long, safe and have lower environmental impact compared to conventional building materials. (2)Develop a physics-based model for leveraging the sustainability of new materials in the process of material design and manufacturing, while guaranteeing long-term building safety under environmental aging. (3) Develop a dynamic life cycle analysis that uses a data-driven surrogate model based on the physics-based model to track cumulative life cycle impacts. A case study of the SFMOMA facade is conducted to analyze the performance and sustainability of the new architectural composites.
9:30 AM
Natural Carbon Waste as a Filler in Plastic Composite Filaments for Sustainable Fused Deposition Modeling Applications: Logan Veley1; Yahya Al-Majali1; Jason Trembly1; 1Ohio University
This study investigates the development and printability of novel natural carbon-enhanced filament materials. Directly integrating carbon waste (reclaimed coal from mining wastes) as a filler material seeks to reduce the environmental load and cost of fused deposition modeling (FDM) filaments while providing a sustainable and embodied end-use for coal. Carbon filler content ranging from 20 – 50 wt.% was compounded with base polymers of polylactic acid (PLA), polyethylene terephthalate glycol (PETG), polyamide 12 (PA12), and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) to produce natural carbon-plastic composite (NCPC) filaments for use in commercially available FDM printers. As-printed composite structures and carbonized structures provide an environmentally friendly and economically viable alternative for existing materials used in building/construction, tooling, and metal casting applications. The influence of different types and loading of natural carbon fillers on the thermal, physical, and mechanical properties of the resulting composites in traditionally and additively manufactured states will be discussed.
9:50 AM Break
10:10 AM
Challenges and Solutions for Nanoparticle Reinforced Lightweight Metal Composites: an Overview: Qianqian Li1; Zhuocheng Xu1; Syazana Hisham1; Samaneh Nasiri2; Michael Zaiser2; Milo Shaffer1; 1Imperial College London; 2University of Erlangen
In view of global warming, the reduction of greenhouse emissions has become a central topic for the transportation sector. In this context, the development of lightweight metals and their composites is attracting attention for structural applications. Nanoparticle reinforced metal composites are a promising solution due to potentially excellent mechanical properties and low density. However, experimental results fall short of the theoretical predictions. The reinforcing mechanisms acting in nanoparticle composites are not yet well understood. The well-understood strengthening mechanisms for metal composites are load transfer, Orowan strengthening, grain refinement and thermal mismatch. However, those mechanisms were formulated for micrometre-sized particles and therefore have certain limitations when applied to nano-reinforcements. In this paper, we looked into using different nanoparticles in lightweight metal matrix. Both experimental and theoretical results were compared to gain a better understanding on the influence of difference nanoparticles, as well as discussing the valid reinforcing mechanisms for nanoparticle-metal composites.
10:30 AM
Synthesis of Aluminum/graphene Composites with Enhanced Electrical Properties through Shear Assisted Processing and Extrusion: Aditya Nittala1; Md. Reza E Rabby1; Joshua Silverstein1; Bharat Gwalani1; Keerti Kappagantula1; 1Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Improvements in the electrical performance of aluminum alloys are crucial to develop environmentally sustainable power transmission infrastructure. A major contributor to the transmission losses is the intrinsic resistivity of the conductor material. In this study, we discuss the synthesis and characterization of aluminum-graphene metal matrix composites with enhanced electrical performance at room and elevated temperatures. The utility of shear assisted processing and extrusion (ShAPE) as an extrusion technology is examined through its efficacy in dispersing reduced graphene oxide flakes in the microstructure in bulk scale profiles, and the energy efficiency compared to conventional hot extrusion methods. The reduced graphene oxide flakes used in this work provide enhanced velocity pathways for the energy carriers in the aluminum microstructure. 3-m long, ~Ø2.5 mm AA1100/graphene composite wires have been extruded through ShAPE which have so far demonstrated an increase of ~7% in electrical conductivity and >6% decrease in temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR).
10:50 AM
Formable Steel Scrap Laminates: Onur Guvenc1; C. Cem Taşan1; 1Massachusetts Institute of Technology
We propose roll-bonded steel scrap laminates as an energy-efficient material alternative for structural applications while avoiding CO2 intensive scrap recycling route. Previous investigations on roll-bonding typically aim at demonstrating a step-change increase in performance compared to monolithic alloys by bonding steels at ideal conditions. Therefore, metal configurations with severe surface limitations (e.g., oxidation, damage, roughness) are almost always avoided. Instead, in this work, we turn our attention to the formability response of the laminated steels in the presence of imperfect initial conditions. Despite the inevitable deficiencies in bond strength, mechanical characterization of the laminates subjected to different strain paths showed that their formability is sufficient for a wide range of forming operations. Our microstructural and mechanical analyses demonstrated that this intriguing performance is due to the favorable stress states acting on the interface, not promoting delamination.
11:10 AM
New Eco-friendly Inorganic Polymeric Materials for the Passive Fire Protection of Structures: Ponsian Robert1; Ioanna Giannopoulou1; Pericles Savva2; Konstantinos-Miltiadis Sakkas2; Michael Petrou3; Demetris Nicolaides4; 1Frederick Research Center; 2RECS Civil Engineers and Partners L.L.C.; 3University of Cyprus; 4Frederick University
This paper deals with the development of new fire-resistant inorganic polymers based on recycled construction and demolition ceramic wastes, through the geopolymerization technology that achieves drastic reduction of energy demand and CO2 emissions compared to technologies currently used for commercial fire-resistant materials. Developed materials were tested at elevated temperatures and their structural transformations and mechanical and physical properties were investigated. According to the results, new materials appeared only negligible surface cracks after heating up to 1050 oC, without phenomena of apparent deformation or creeping. Their microstructural analysis revealed transformations of initial mineralogical phases to minerals with melting points higher than 1100 oC. After materials thermal testing, their residual compressive strength was ranged from 20 to 35 MPa and their mass loss in between 4 and 10%. Based on the findings of this study, the developed materials are promising to be applied for the passive fire protection of buildings and constructions.