Elastomeric matrix composites
AssigneeHRL Laboratories, LLC
InventorsChristopher P. Henry, Geoffrey P. McKnight
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An engineered microstructure composite having an elastic or elastomeric matrix with distributed rigid reinforcements. One embodiment of the invention provides an elastomeric composite including an elastomeric matrix, a plurality of rigid reinforcements embedded within the elastomeric matrix, and a plurality of attachments (or ligaments) connected to the reinforcements to interconnect the rigid reinforcements to each other. Here, in this embodiment, the elastomeric composite has a composite reversible strain limit greater than 3 percent (%) (or, in one embodiment, greater than 5%) due to kinematics of the rigid reinforcements interconnected by the attachments and embedded within the elastomeric matrix.
Claims23
An elastomeric composite comprising:
- an elastomeric matrix;
- a plurality of rigid reinforcements with major dimensions less than 1 cm and embedded within the elastomeric matrix;
- and
- a plurality of attachments connected to the reinforcements to interconnect the rigid reinforcements to each other,
- wherein the elastomeric composite has a composite reversible strain limit greater than three (3) percent (%) due to kinematics of the rigid reinforcements interconnected by the attachments and embedded within the elastomeric matrix.
An elastomeric composite comprising:
- a plurality of rigid reinforcement layers, each of the rigid reinforcement layers comprising an elastomeric material, a plurality of rigid reinforcements embedded in the elastomeric material, and a plurality of in-plane attachments to interconnect the rigid reinforcements;
- a plurality of elastomeric layers arranged in alternating layers with the plurality of rigid reinforcement layers, each of the elastomeric layers comprising the elastomeric material and a plurality of out-of-plane attachments,
- wherein the out-of-plane attachments interconnect the rigid reinforcements of the plurality of rigid reinforcement layers to each other.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.