Effect of fibre length and suspension concentration on alignment quality of discontinuous recycled carbon fibre

Z. Liu, K. Wong, T. Thimsuvan, T. Turner, S. Pickering

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

13 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Recycling has been widely considered to be one of the crucial requirements for the continuous use and growth in composite material. In this paper, a hydrodynamic alignment process is devised for converting discontinuous random recycled carbon fibre into mats with a highly aligned orientation distribution. The process involves preparation of a fibre suspension stock, fibre alignment via a nozzle, filtration and aligned mat treatment. The aligned mat allows composites with higher volume content to be manufactured at lower moulding pressure thus keeping degradation of fibre length to a minimum. In the past, alignment processes have been focused on fibres shorter than 5mm as they provide good dispersion quality. In the existing work, an attempt was made to use longer fibres in the alignment process as route to potential enhancement of composite performance. In addition, fibre concentration in the suspension was increased in order to increase the process yield rate. The effect of using longer fibre lengths and more concentrated suspension on alignment quality is reported in this paper. Furthermore, the relationship between nozzle geometry and alignment quality is also investigated. Finally the mechanical properties of a composite laminate made from 3mm recycled fibre are explored.

Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - 2015
Externally publishedYes
Event20th International Conference on Composite Materials, ICCM 2015 - Copenhagen, Denmark
Duration: 19 Jul 201524 Jul 2015

Conference

Conference20th International Conference on Composite Materials, ICCM 2015
Country/TerritoryDenmark
CityCopenhagen
Period19/07/1524/07/15

Keywords

  • Carbon fibre
  • Fibre Alignment
  • Recycling

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Engineering
  • Ceramics and Composites

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