Youssef Hamidi, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Houston-Clear Lake University, showed a sample of his silk fiber composite material. He said that silk fiber will make the composite material more resilient to impact and pressure. This increases the possibility of manufacturing load-bearing composite materials that can replace most of the steel used in automobiles and other manufactured products.
Youssef Hamidi, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Houston, Texas (UHCL), is studying silk fibers for composite materials to meet natural fiber reinforcement that combines strength, light weight, and sustainability The growing demand for composite materials.
In his recent research published in the "Materials" magazine, Hamidi claimed that silk fibers are more resilient than traditional glass fibers or carbon fibers and have a high tensile strength, making them less brittle and more resistant to impact And stress. He said this increases the possibility of manufacturing load-bearing silk fiber-reinforced composites for the automotive and other industries. Hamidi joined UHCL School of Mechanical Engineering in 2018 and has been studying composite materials since 2000, focusing on how to reduce defects caused by the process.
He and his research colleagues at the University of Oklahoma College of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering (Norman, Oklahoma, USA) started using silk a year ago.
"I'm thinking about what is the most appropriate," Hamidi said. In most (bio-based) applications, people use short plant-based fibers. But silk has higher performance. It's easy to buy. It is not lacking. ".
Hamidi used silk extracted directly from silkworm cocoons for the first time, but found it troublesome. He soon discovered that the silk on the shelves worked best. However, he found that once the resin dries, it will leave tiny voids or bubbles inside the resin, and the resin cannot be completely attached to the fabric. Understanding how these voids are formed and how to eliminate them is the subject of Hamidi's doctoral thesis.
Hamidi said that these are common problems in composite manufacturing and are usually solved by using autoclaves to eliminate defects in the molding process. However, because the idea behind Hamidi ’s research was to create a low-cost alternative to a high-cost manufacturing process, he was committed to finding a solution that did not rely on expensive autoclave therapy.
In his current research, Hamidi is solving the problem of resin / fiber adhesion. To this end, he turned to scale adjustment.
Hamidi hopes that the use of suitable sizing agents on silk fabrics will improve the adhesion of the resin and reduce voids, thereby significantly improving the performance of silk fiber composites.
He is currently working with a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley to come up with a better sizing agent. He said: "We need to find the right size to improve the adhesion."
"Normally, the mechanical properties of composite materials are determined by this combination. We can change most of the mechanical properties of composite materials by changing the chemical composition and sizing method of sizing."
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