Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Carbon Fiber Point-Support Curtain Wall System

Pedro A. Hernandez

Carbon Fiber Truss - Section

Eduardo Balderrama

Interview with Prof. Shiren Wang

Monday, November 22, 2010
Conversation with Prof. Shiren Wang* about Carbon as a Smart Material
*Assistant Professor at the Department Industrial Engineer at Texas Tech University


We spoke to ­­professor Wang and we asked some of the questions that we had during the semester about how Carbon is used as a Smart material and what important facts did he knew about this topic. He is a professor at the department of Industrial Engineering and has several publications about the matter.
Carbon fiber is the one of most important composite that Carbon can produce, its not the only one, he told us that they are various types of Carbon fiber. The industry of Carbon has some of the most powerful material but is not accessible, since it is only available for military purposes, the type of composition is called M7, and according to Prof. Wang this is one of the most resistant materials available. For him Carbon Fiber is a possible substitute for steel or other materials but as we already know the price is what makes this material inaccessible.
Japan has the main and best Carbon Fiber material available according to some of Prof. Wang research, and well the most elemental question to that is why? He said that they are different types of Carbon Fiber to some being really weak, and some very strong; the key factor in this is the process of production. Producing Carbon Fiber is a long and precise procedure, and the most important part of it is heating Carbon to some extreme temperatures, this not only produces a good quality Carbon Fiber, but it bumps the price up.
We also asked him about his work nowadays and his involvement with Carbon fiber, and he is currently working on Carbon nanotubes as an element in producing photovoltaic cells and panels. He has a group of students working down at a lab from the Texas Tech University Department of Industrial Engineer.
He was very positive with the use of Carbon in the near future, since it is a very important smart material. He wanted for us to define smart material, since it contains many characteristics, but at the end he agreed with us that Carbon indeed is consider a smart material, for all of its positive attributes.
As a caution reminder he told us to be very careful with the little particles of Carbon Fiber, because they are so small (about .008mm) that they can penetrate the skin and stay there, creating a rash for a very long time.









Monday, November 15, 2010

ZOLTEK carbon fiber manufacturer

We have contacted this company and they have agreed on sending some samples of their product catalog, in their website they have very useful information on the past, the present, and the future of Carbon Fiber

ZOLTEK

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Carbon Fiber Bridge

Awarded the second prize at the International Engineering Design Contest. Autostressed carbon fiber bridge. Located over Urumea River, San Sebastian, Spain. Span 75m, width 25m, 4 traffic lanes + bicycle + pedestrians.


Carbon Fiber Bridge