Abstract
The controlled orientation of short fibers on the surface of structural laminates while obtaining good dispersion and uniform spatial distribution is highly desirable. In this paper, a new magnetic field assisted fabrication method is proposed to align nickel coated carbon (NiC) fibers on the surface of ternary NiC/glass/epoxy laminates. Excellent dispersion of short NiC fibers with a uniform distribution on the fabric surface is achieved via a recently developed cascaded suspension deposition method. An appropriate level of magnetic field, generated by a set of permanent magnets, is used to control orientation of NiC fibers without disturbing the dispersion and uniformity of microstructure in the composite laminates. The magnetic field is used to induce different levels of fiber alignment: (i) on the glass fabric substrate during the deposition of NiC fibers, (ii) on the deposited fabric after mold filling by vacuum assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM), and (iii) on the fabric substrate during deposition, mold filling, and after mold filling. The effects of fiber aspect ratio and the amount of nickel coating on the process-induced microstructure are also investigated. The results show that the proposed method can be successfully used in VARTM to obtain a controlled orientation of fibers at the surface of the laminate while maintaining the uniform fiber volume fraction and good dispersion throughout the surface. Surface microstructural analysis reveals that the highest alignment of NiC fibers is achieved when the magnetic field is applied throughout the fabrication process.
Published Version
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