Jianwen Chen

• PHD
• Professor (Associate) at Nanjing University of Science and Technology

The paper investigates the mechanical properties of coated polyester fabrics in biaxial monotonic tensile tests. The nonlinear behaviors of the constitutive parameters within the full-stress range were in detail analyzed, and a new constitutive model based on the specific coupling relationships between the uniaxial and biaxial flexibilities was pro...

To reveal the central tearing behaviors and propagation mechanisms of the architectural non-crimp fabric (NCF) composites with an initial crack, a microscopic finite element (FE) model was proposed and developed to simulate the tearing propagation process of materials in this paper. Firstly, the experimental program including the central crack tear...

This paper presents a new fractional constitutive model to reveal the nonlinear and viscoelastic properties of fabric composites under normal loading conditions. The uniaxial tensile tests for warp-knitted non-crimp fabric (NCF) composites under different strain rates were carried out, and their nonlinear characteristics and quasi-yield behaviors u...

As a kind of typical air-inflated membrane structure, ethylene–tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) cushion has become one of the most essential engineering structures in recent decades, especially in the field of large-span spatial structures. This study experimentally investigates the mechanical properties and structural behaviors of ETFE cushion structure...

In order to reveal shear deformation mechanisms of architectural non-crimp fabric (NCF) composites, detailed shear stiffness-nonlinearities for a typical coated warp-knitted NCF composite under shear-tension coupling loading were studied from experimental investigation and FEA models. Shear-tension coupling effects on shear stiffness of the NCF com...

In order to reveal shear deformation mechanisms of architectural non-crimp fabric (NCF) composites, detailed shear stiffness-nonlinearities for a typical coated warp-knitted NCF composite under shear-tension coupling loading were studied from experimental investigation and FEA models. Shear-tension coupling effects on shear stiffness of the NCF com...

In order to further clarify the shear mechanisms and shear-tension coupling effects of warp-knitted non-crimp fabric (NCF) composites under the combined shear and tension loading, biaxial bias extension tests with three tensile stress levels (TSLs) and four shear stress levels (SSLs) were conducted. The shear stiffness was calculated by three metho...

As a typical fluorine-based copolymer with excellent chemical, thermal, electrical and physical properties, ETFE (ethylene tetrafluoroethylene) is usually produced into thin films as an essential building and construction material especially for constructing the permanent membrane structures in civil engineering. This paper is thus aimed to investi...

Membrane materials with the excellent thermal, optical, electrical and chemical properties have attracted significant attention in numerous research fields recently. However, while being used to construct the membrane structures, the mechanical behaviors of membrane materials are more foundational than the other properties in evaluating the structu...

Inflatable membrane structures with the advantages of light weight, large span, long duration and aesthetical appearance have gained considerable attentions from buildings, super-pressure balloons, airships and deployable antennas. This paper presents a novel computational method for in-situ finite element modeling of inflatable membrane structures...

Membrane materials have been widely used in the fields of building structures, super-pressure balloons, stratosphere airships and space deployable antennas. Among the material properties, long-term creep of membranes is a very essential factor in influencing the structural safety. This paper thus presents the simultaneous uniaxial creep testing of...

Inflatable membrane structures have gained considerable popularity in recent years owing to the advantages of light weight, beautiful surface and durability. This paper concerns the dynamic geometrical shape in-situ measurement and structural analysis of inflatable membrane structures using a low-cost three-camera system. The measurement system was...

Tensile tests of seven bias angles with a 15° increment with respect to the warp direction are conducted on a typical coated bi-axial warp knitted fabric (BWKF). By utilizing the Digital Image Correlation technique, the experimental results are processed, and detailed responses of strain contours and Poisson’s ratios are determined for some specifi...

Fabric membranes are composed of high strength cloth and multi-functional layers, which have been extensively used in architectural engineering, aerospace and astronautic industry field. Now the primary design methods have been developed to meet the basic practical technical requirements, however, the too simplified assumptions result in serious mi...

It is undeniable that full-strain range characteristics of Poisson’s ratios on the behaviors of a fabric composite are crucial. However, there have been relatively few papers devoted to this subject. In this study, tensile tests of seven bias angles with a 15° increment are conducted on a typical coated biaxial warp-knitted fabric (BWKF) to estimat...

Inflatable membrane structure employs flexible membranes as main constructive materials, as well as pressurized gas in the membrane envelope aiming to provide the bearing capacity and structural integrity. Therefore, the internal pressure control and load simulation method are very significant to estimate the structural behavior of inflatable membr...

This paper describes a self-developed MATLAB program for achieving complex deformation properties and accurate elastic parameters of woven fabrics. Using this program, the response surface analyses of deformation and elastic parameters were conducted to reveal the variation and evolution in stiffness, Poisson’s ratio, and orthotropy of the laminate...

A comprehensive experimental study of the laminated fabric URETEK3216LV subjected to mono-uniaxial, uniaxial cyclic and biaxial cyclic loading was performed to expose the detailed mechanical behaviors and determine proper elastic parameters for the laminated fabrics under specific stress states. The elastic modulus-strain curves and elastic paramet...

Based on our prior study on uniaxial tearing tests, the influences of slit parameters, off-axis angles, and loading speeds on the tearing behaviors and strengths were discussed further. Results show that the tearing behaviors and strengths of the studied material are affected by above factors significantly, and typical tearing stress-displacement c...

The use of enhanced plain woven fabrics for aerospace engineering needs essential and accurate mechanical parameters for analyzing structural behavior and performing numerical simulations. The uniaxial tensile tests are direct and effective approaches to investigate these mechanical properties. This study focused on uniaxial monotonic and cyclic me...

Stress distribution on a membrane surface plays a key role in the structural safety and bearing capacity of an inflatable membrane structure, especially for the state under service condition. This paper presents an in situ method to determine the stress distribution of an inflatable membrane structure by using a force-finding method based on measur...

Traditional polymer composites generally present limited thermal conductivity (TC) even highly loaded with highly thermally conductive fillers due to the lack of large interfacial thermal resistance between the fillers and the surrounding polymers. In this work, polyamide-6/graphite nanoflakes (PA6/GnF) composites with high TC can be obtained throu...

A new steel-concrete interface shear (SCIS) test was used for measuring the interface shear strength between the steel bridge deck and the asphalt concrete overlay. This paper describes the test apparatus, specimen preparation, and testing procedure, and illustrates the interface shear strengths determined with the proposed test method. Three facto...

This paper deals with the fracture failure analysis on plain woven laminated fabrics used in stratospheric airship structures. A series of uniaxial tensile and central slit tearing tests were carefully conducted on bias specimens, and the corresponding tensile and tearing properties, including failure mechanisms and material strengths, of a laminat...

A series of biaxial tensile tests were conducted on high performance laminated fabrics Uretek3216LV in order to reveal the response characteristics of laminated fabrics in the plane stress space, and the stress-strain data at nine stress ratios were obtained. Using the MATLAB program, the response surfaces of tensile strains and elastic parameters...

This paper presents an investigation into the low temperature performance of epoxy asphalt (EA) binder and mixture. The creep characteristics of EA binder at low temperature were determined by the bending beam rheometer test. The thermal stress restrained specimen test, bending strength test and bending creep test were utilized to characterize the...

Graphene is often used to improve the thermal conductivity of polymers but usually with high amount. The key factor that limits the thermal conductivity is graphene agglomeration as well as the incompatible interface between graphene and polymer. Here, we report super-high thermal conductivity of polyamide-6 (PA6) composites achieved by adding smal...

The inflatable membrane structure has been widely used in the fields of civil building, industrial building, airship, super pressure balloon and spacecraft. It is important to measure the stress distribution of the inflatable membrane structure because it influences the safety of the structural design. This paper presents an innovative methodology...

This paper deals with the tearing analysis on laminated fabrics used in pneumatic structures (specifically crack propagation and tearing strength). Uniaxial tearing tests were carefully conducted on specimens, and the influences of crack parameters on the tearing behaviors and strength of a laminated fabric were discussed. Afterward, the biaxial te...

This paper reports the central slit tearing behaviors of laminated fabrics for airships from experimental investigation and analytical models. First, central slit tearing behaviors of laminated fabrics with different tear lengths were tested to obtain tearing stress-displacement curves and damage morphology. Then, an analytical model was establishe...

Fe3O4 nanosheet arrays grown on both surfaces of graphene can be achieved by combining a mussel-inspired polydopamine adhesive and ethylene glycol-mediated process. Polydopamine is utilized not only as an efficient linker molecule that binds Fe3O4 nanosheets to the graphene, but also as a carbon source during heat treatment to yield the three dimen...

A theoretical model with extensible yarns for plain-woven fabrics is developed to determine the calculation of Poisson ratios. The stress ratio (warp: weft), as one of parameters corresponding to Poisson ratio variations, is introduced to complement the theoretical model. To evaluate the reliability of the theoretical analysis, a series of biaxial...

Polypyrrole/nano-exfoliated graphite composites were synthesized using an in situ intercalation polymerization of pyrrole into the layers of expanded graphites. The morphologies and nanostructures of obtained composites were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis...

This paper presents an experimental study to determine the tensile properties of the envelope fabric Uretek3216L under biaxial cyclic loading. First, the biaxial cyclic tests were carefully carried out on the envelope material to obtain the stress-strain data, and the corresponding nonlinearity and orthotropy of the material were analyzed. Then, fo...

ZnO crystals with different morphologies including microrods, hierarchical microspheres, and hollow microspheres were fabricated via a simple and low-cost trisodium citrate-assisted hydrothermal method. The related morphologies and structures of the as-prepared products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SE...

Series tests were carried out for the new airship envelope fabric Uretek3216L. First, uni-axial cyclic tests were conducted. And then, on the basis of the multi-function bi-axial tension tester developed in SSRC, bi-axial tension tests with five stress ratios were carried out with particular test protocol. Detailed experiment results and elastic mo...

In this paper, first, the uniaxial cyclic tensile tests of coated fabric Ferrari1302 were conducted, and a series of biaxial tensile tests with different load ratios were carried out on a self-developed multi-function biaxial tensile tester, with detailed uniaxial and biaxial cyclic tension results being obtained. Then, the stress-strain relationsh...

This article presents an experimental study to determine the tensile properties of the envelope fabric Uretek3216A under mono-uniaxial, uniaxial cyclic, and biaxial cyclic loading. First, the mono-uniaxial, uniaxial cyclic, and biaxial cyclic tests were carefully carried out on the envelope fabric, and the corresponding stress–strain behaviors were...

ZnO nanorod–nanosheet (NR–NS) hierarchical architectures grown on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) coated glass substrates were prepared via a two-step solution route, which involved the growth of the ZnO nanorods on the FTO substrate, followed by a secondary growth of the ZnO nanosheet on the as-grown backbone. The characterization showed that the n...

This article presents the mechanical properties of PVC coated fabrics under biaxial cyclic tensile loads. Tests of PVC at five load ratios in the warp and weft directions, which are 0:1, 1:2, 1:1, 2:1 and 1:0 respectively, were carried out, and tensile performances of the samples under biaxial tensile loads were analyzed. The test results show that...

Experiments on uniaxial and triaxial rock mechanics and rock acoustic emissions have been conducted for research on the impact of rock anisotropy on the development of the fractures of different directions by taking as an example the ultra-low-permeability sandstone reservoir in the Upper Triassic Yanchang Formation within the Ordos Basin. The expe...