M. Akif Yalcinkaya

• PhD
• PostDoc Position at University of Oklahoma

The controlled orientation of short fibers on the surface of structural laminates while obtaining good dispersion and uniform spatial distribution is highly desirable. In this paper, a new magnetic field assisted fabrication method is proposed to align nickel coated carbon (NiC) fibers on the surface of ternary NiC/glass/epoxy laminates. Excellent...

Fabrication of multifunctional materials via incorporation of the third component into structural composite laminates is of great interest, especially for manipulating surface properties. However, achieving a uniform, well‐dispersed surface microstructure in ternary composites is quite challenging by using the traditional fabrication processes. In...

The three-dimensional nano-morphology of poly(methyl methacrylate; PMMA) microcapsules filled with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and epoxy resin were investigated by various microscopy methods, including a novel, laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM) method. Initially, PMMA microcapsules containing various amounts of CNTs were synthesized by a solven...

Applying external pressure on the vacuum bag in heated-Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Molding (heated-VARTM) is a new approach for manufacturing high quality composite laminates with minimal voids. The present study focuses on the effects of external pressure and resin flushing on the microstructural features of the laminates, including spatial var...

With growing environmental awareness, natural fibers have recently received significant interest as reinforcement in polymer composites. Among natural fibers, silk can potentially be a natural alternative to glass fibers, as it possesses comparable specific mechanical properties. In order to investigate the processability and properties of silk rei...

The compaction pressure on the fibrous preform is one of the most critical parameters in vacuum assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM), which significantly affects the preform permeability, mold filling time, and final thickness of the fabricated composite. In this study, the compaction pressure on the vacuum bag was controlled during and after th...

Vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM) has several inherent shortcomings such as long mold filling times, low fiber volume fraction, and high void content in fabricated laminates. These problems in VARTM mainly arise from the limited compaction of the laminate and low resin pressure. Pressurized infusion (PI) molding introduced in this pape...

Application of natural fibers in polymer composites has been gaining popularity in several industries pursuing environmentally friendly products. Among the natural fibers with proven potential applications, silk fibers have recently received considerable attention from researchers. Silk fibers provide higher mechanical properties compared to other...

Although vacuum-assisted transfer molding (VARTM) is preferred for manufacturing medium to large composite parts due to its simple tooling and low cost, part quality dictated by dimensional tolerances, void content and mechanical properties is usually low due to inherent limitations of the process. In this study, the conventional VARTM process was...

Permeability characterization of a fabric preform is a key factor that affects the accuracy of process modeling of vacuum infusion. There are various flow types and boundary conditions (such as one-dimensional or radial flow under constant injection pressure or constant injection flow rate during unsaturated or saturated flow regimes) used in perme...

One-continuous permeability measurement experiments allow measuring permeability of a fiber preform within a range of fiber volume fractions by conducting a single unsaturated (a.k.a. transient) flow experiment on a dry specimen at an initial thickness, and a set of saturated flow experiments on the wetted specimen by varying the thickness of the m...

An experimental setup was used to fairly compare mold filling times in vacuum infusion and resin transfer molding, and a 9.5% shorter mold filling time in vacuum infusion was observed than in resin transfer molding. The setup was also used to conduct compaction and permeability characterization experiments, and the results were used in a simplified...