Affiliation:
1. Department of Mechanical and Production Engineering, Derby College of Art and Technology
Abstract
A simple experimental model is proposed to simulate the creep properties of composite materials with aligned continuous reinforcement. A complete programme of testing, covering the full range of percentage reinforcements at three test temperatures, is described. The experimental results are compared with predictions based on various theoretical methods; for this comparison incremental techniques devised by the author are used. Digital-computer programmes have been written to make the latter methods tractable. Quantitative allowance for material scatter is included in the analyses. The implications of the author's results for composites, and also for more complex structural creep, are indicated. It is found that the effects of scatter are so predominant that it is not appropriate to resort to methods more complex than those based on the mechanical equation of state.