Patent Issued for New System and Method of Characterizing the Equibiaxial Compressive Strength of 2D Woven Composites
Associate Professor Kedar Kirane and co-inventors, former MS students Daniel Deland and Zongyan Zhang were recently
issued a patent. "This technology proposes a novel but simple idea that allows simple
and reliable measurement of the equibiaxial compressive strength of 2D woven composites,
by application of a uniaxial out of plane load, with a very simple specimen geometry and test set up. The testing method for
this purpose is the ring on ring flexure test. In this test, the biaxial strength
can be measured by subjecting un-notched disks or plates to a monotonic, out of plane load at the
center. This produces biaxial flexure of the specimen and effectively converts a uniaxial
load into a biaxial state of stress. This test set up is inexpensive and the specimen
geometry is simple. It also does not require any expensive specimen grips."