William, you're right that the fiber angles are definitely not random. The angles of the fibers in each of the fabric layers relative to the angles of the fibers in the layers above and below it are key.
Your rant is lacking in factual basis, has no direction, and is missing a reasoned conclusion.
The deaths of the 3 Apollo One astronauts could have been prevented if the 'expert' opinions of the advising astronauts' against a full-up 100% oxygen test had been taken.
The deaths of the Challenger astronauts might have been prevented if the engineers' concerns about ice on the shuttle had not been over-ruled.
The deaths of the Columbia astronauts might have been prevented if the engineers had been allowed to make the observations they requested. Those requests were denied because they could not be cost-justified - Sean O'Keefe's bean-counter management style.
An astronaut in charge of NASA seems lika a good idea to me.
Before US Airways went bankrupt I had a conversation with pilots who were told by management that the company's success depended on making shareholders happy, NOT by serving the interests of the passengers / paying customers.
Maybe not Boeing, but US Airways could have benefitted from the Pilots' opinion.
Information is not Knowledge, Knowledge is not Wisdom, Wsidom is not Truth. I don't know who first said this.
Materials science produces an ever increasing array of new materials---However the temperature going through earths outer spin required ceramics for the now decommissioned shuttle 2, with obamas pet chicken, bankruptcy expert, elon musk, taking us back to the 60's with, LEO's, payloads of cheese, and splashdowns, and tales of actually going to mars, heralding the end of nasa as obama appoints an astronaunt in charge of the new NASA, like putting an airplane pilot in charge of boeing. Its like the price of gasoline, whereby obama doesn't care,speaking of other energy sources, trying to support his spending on popular but inpractical energy sources, like electric cars, pretending them to be clean energy, when they are powered by coal, mostly, I am waiting on the upcoming election fraud, to see some real change, like people uprising against affirmative actions seizure of the government, increasing innercity social welfare and more free meds, at the cost of american military, our independence replaced with slavery ( Free Trade ) Perhaps we wil need this new material for clothing, against the beating we are getting from our electorate ha ha ha
Thre times stronger is quite an achievement, but myguess is that there is a bit more to the method than was announced, and that it is more than simply random fiber angles. So I don't think that all those who may immitate will have the same results. But that is fine, since successful research deserves to be rewarded.
3D random weave fabric WILL be weaker in any one direction than a directed fabric. I think the weave that 'emphasizes' directional stranding in response to major stress direction(s) is the ultimate solution and cross-sectional area control will help limit resin pockets. Just my 2015 prediction.
RNDDUDE, you are correct, the smaller fiber size, therefore denser fibers and resin to fiber ratio are what makes this possible. But so does stitching, according to the two people I interviewed from the consortium, instead of weaving. Stitching also contributes to less resin and more widely dispersed resin, as stated in the article.
Also, the tests used were for initial trials, also stated in the article. Other tests, however, have been done that are delineated in the journal article I gave a link to.
Ann, Gregg's response hits at the real potential benefit of this methodology, namely decreasing the resin to fiber ratio and getting the fibers in as close of proximity as possible. The smaller fiber size is the crutial factor I believe. An example is wire rope design that gets stronger when the individual wire sizes are reduces and multiplied but the overall diameter stays constant. I reiterate my earlier post that the test cited does not accurately represent the gains possible in actual use. I imagine if one took virgin carbon fibers without any resin matrix and subjected them to the same test the results might be very similar.
Chuck, that kind of detail is in the journal article (subscription required). I agree, it's quite a hefty increase.
Here's what Greg Bowers said about that:
As a follow up to some of your bloggers there were additional material tests conducted on the NCF material. Those results were published in the JEC Asia October 2011 magazine [article]. A blogger mentioned the application of fiberglass but fiberglass' strength to weight is inferior to carbon and therefore you see most aircraft using carbon fiber instead of fiberglass.
I heard back from Greg Bowers at Advaero. Here is his response:
While I am not familiar with the referenced specific failures of composites in the field, most non-impact failures are a result of delamination of the fabric layers. There is a developing scanning technology that will allow detection of defect or delamination failures in-situ. These delaminations are generally initiated in the resin rich areas of composites. Since resin is not as strong as the carbon fiber the cracks will start there and propogate until eventual failure. Advaero's HVARTM infusion process coupled with the small diameter carbon fiber of Chomarat's NCF fabric significantly reduce the space between fibers and therefore reduce the resin rich areas. Typical woven carbon fiber fabric is crimped in the weaving process thereby increasing pockets of space in the fabric and in the laminate interface. More space....more resin rich pockets. Repair of damage to composites in the field can be a challenge, especially larger repairs. Advaero is developing a new nanofiber technology that we feel will provide a stronger repaired area yet it will be field capable.
Regarding tooling required for new composites: There will be new or
modified tooling required to make the NCF fabric but not radically
different from today's processes. Advaero's HVARTM process is a
modification of well known resin infusion processes being used today and requires only small modifications to existing tooling. In some cases, HVARTM has the potential to replace the very expensive and energy consuming autoclave processes. While this may result in some new tooling the cost is easily offset by the reduction in manufacturing costs.
This sounds like Unidirectional Carbon Fiber that has been available for decades. Is the stitching part supposed to be the "Special" feature that we're supposed to take note of? Sorry, but I don't see anything special in this article (for those that don't know Unidirectional is much stronger in a pull test than woven, because all the fibers are oriented in the direction of load).
Andrew Morris designed a circuit that could detect a stroke victim's groan and convert the sound into a signal so caregivers would know when help was needed.
New disc magnet motors fit into the design trend of stepping up to closed loop performance while maintaining the cost advantage of stepper motor technology.
At the Design News webinar on June 27, learn all about aluminum extrusion: designing the right shape so it costs the least, is simplest to manufacture, and best fits the application's structural requirements.
On April 21, NASA launched a novel project, putting into orbit three satellites that employ an off-the-shelf commercial smartphone as the control system.
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For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
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