Efficient Toughening of Short-Fiber Composites Using Weak Magnetic Fields

Short fibers may serve as toughening agents of composite materials because of the high energy dissipated during fracture, associated with numerous fiber pullouts. An ongoing challenge is to improve their toughness even further, by directing and concentrating fibers near highly stressed structural regions. Weak magnetic fields are utilized to increase the fracture toughness of an epoxy matrix reinforced by short magnetized glass fibers by directing and concentrating fibers near highly stressed structural regions. The orientation and local concentration of the fibers are controlled by the vector components of the magnetic field, and by the gradient in field intensity, respectively. Optimized fracture toughness was achieved by using two pairs of permanent magnets, combining enhanced concentration of fibers in the crack-tip vicinity with alignment of the fibers along the load direction. This optimized value was well above the reference fracture-toughness measured for composites with the same filler content in the absence of a magnetic field, as well as above the value achieved by exploiting unidirectional alignment, without fiber translation, using a solenoid. The method suggested in this study—localized reinforcement using magnetic translation of fillers through the formation of magnetic gradients—enables efficient and controllable improvement in the composite’s overall resistance to fracture, without the involvement of additional phases or material.