Colloquium: Chek Hei Vincenzo Man (ASM)

This thesis focuses on the manufacturing and application of transparent glass fiber-reinforced polymers (TGFRPs) and is divided into two phases: The first phase aims to modify manufacturing parameters to control the transparency of glass fiber-reinforced composites. In this phase, various parameters will be investigated, including the addition of MMA, increasing the number of glass fiber fabric layers, post-curing, and the removal of sizing. The second phase explores the potential application of TGFRPs in damage detection and stress analysis. This will be achieved by using the transparency of TGFRPs to detect interlayer damage via confocal microscopy. Additionally, the study will attempt to correlate opacity changes in TGFRPs during tensile testing with the fringe patterns observed through photoelasticity and the strain field measured using DIC during loading.

Supervisor: Onur Yuksel