polymerguru

Today's KNOWLEDGE Share: METHANOL Methanol occupies a critical position in the chemical industry as a highly versatile building block for the manufacture of countless everyday products such as paints, carpeting, plastics, and more. Increasingly, methanol is being employed around the globe in many innovative applications to meet our growing energy demand. We use methanol to fuel our cars and trucks, marine vessels, boilers, cookstoves, and kilns, among an increasing list of market applications. Methanol is a highly versatile product that finds itself in many ubiquitous household products, essential components for cars, and the production of other valuable chemicals. Methanol’s versatility lies in its ability to be produced from different feedstocks – from natural gas, waste, and captured CO2 combined with green hydrogen. Increasingly, methanol is considered a clean and sustainable fuel rather than just a petrochemical. Its inherent clean-burning properties produce lower emissions (w

Today's KNOWLEDGE Share: Failure modes: What are the most common failure modes for fiber reinforced composites? Let's check them out in detail!  This image shows three different failure modes: delamination, fiber breakage, and tensile/shear matrix cracks in a composite laminate!  Fracture analysis when zoomed-in can reveal a lot of info to engineers!  Image Credits: Vinoda Yakkundi here on LinkedIn Source: #managingcomposites #thenativelab Visit MY BLOG http://polymerguru.blogspot.com #composites #failure #microscopy #failureanalysis #fiber #crack

On March 12, 2023 (Sunday), Nitin Gadkari showcased 100% methanol-powered buses that will be run by Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC). The buses will be operated with methanol blended fuel as part of Mission Clean Energy. The preliminary tests will be run on a pilot basis. The Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari recently announced several pilot trials of MD15 buses on the premises of Vidhana Soudha. Moreover, they are to be tested with 15% methanol-blended fuel provided by Indian Oil. On this occasion, a truck that runs on 100% methanol (M 100) was also introduced by the government. Government’s Clean Energy Project An official of BMTC stated that this methanol-focused initiative has been put forth by the Central Government and NITI Aayog. The corporation will be providing 10 buses including both BSVI (Bharat Stage Emission Standards) and BSIV (Bharat Stage IV) for the implementation. This illustrious project of the Union government aims at so

Today's KNOWLEDGE Share: Failure Analysis on Poly Carbonate hub I recently completed a failure analysis on a polycarbonate hub used to secure a steel tube. A number of parts had cracked while undergoing engineering use testing in the laboratory. The fractographic examination, which included scanning electron microscopy (SEM), revealed fracture surface features that indicated that the parts failed though the application of stress at a high strain rate. It was concluded that the engineering testing produced rapid mechanical overload, in which the stresses exceeded the short-term strength of the material. Plastic materials, including polycarbonate, can undergo a ductile-to-brittle transition associated with high strain rate events. The high strain rate failure mechanism was specifically identified in the SEM images by the presence of features known as river markings. They extended out from and bounded the crack origin. The crack origin area also displayed a relatively smooth texture,

Today's KNOWLEDGE Share: Fiber properties: As you may already know, fibers and their properties are very important to the performance of the final composite material being developed!  Not only that, but the material price also needs to be in accordance with the business case of the project!  That said, how does the most common high performance reinforcements fare against each other when it comes to Specific Fiber Toughness, Compressive Modulus, Tensile Modulus, Compressive Strength, Tensile Strength, Density and Cost?  This graph offers an easy way to compare and select the best option between them!  Bibliographical Reference: Structural Composite Materials - Page 35 Source: #managingcomposites #thenativelab Visit MY BLOG http://polymerguru.blogspot.com #composites #fiber #tensile #compression #toughness #materialsscience #polymerscience

Today's KNOWLEDGE Share: Strength of fibers Fibers generally exhibit much higher strengths than the bulk form of the same material. The probability of a flaw per unit length present in a sample is an inverse function of the volume of the material. Since fibers have a very low volume per unit length, they are much stronger on average than the bulk material, which has a high volume per unit length. On the other hand, because a bulk material has a much higher content of weakening flaws, it exhibits much lower variability in strength. Thus, the smaller the fiber diameter and the shorter its length, the higher the average and maximum strength but the greater the variability. Therefore, fibers have higher strength than their bulk counterparts, but they have greater scatter in their strength. The variability in the strength of fibers is a function of the flaws they contain and, in particular, the flaws they contain on the surface.  Flaws can be minimized by careful manufacturing processes