Practice IB Design Technology (DT) Topic 4.2f Composites with authentic exam-style questions for both SL and HL students. This question bank focuses on the exact syllabus content for 4.2f Composites and mirrors Paper 1, 2, 3 style where relevant.
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Some villages near Siem Reap in Cambodia have problems with waste, in this case plastic bags, polluting the landscape.
Salin and Michael of the Treak Community Centre near Siem Reap have developed an innovative way of dealing with the issue of plastic bag waste.
Plastic bags collected by the Treak community are placed on a bed of sand that is heated by a fire. This shrinks the bags and makes them stiffer. The bags are then shredded into small chunks with scissors, see Figure 10. The shredded plastic is then used as a substitute for aggregate in concrete which is mixed by hand, see Figure 11. This concrete is then moulded into bricks, see Figure 12 and Figure 13, that can be used for construction.
40% of the bricks used for the Treak Community Centre were made using this method. The remaining 60% of bricks are standard clay construction bricks.
Outline why these bricks are an example of a composite material.
Designers use specifications to guide development and evaluation. Suggest the cost constraints and material requirements for the Treak Village plastic brick.
Explain why prototypes would be used in the testing and evaluation of the brick made by the Treak community.
Explain how the manufacture of the Treak Village plastic brick addresses the green design objectives of materials, energy and waste.
Composite materials are engineered by combining two or more constituent materials with significantly different physical or chemical properties.
Figure 1: Schematic of a fiber-reinforced composite
In the material structure shown in Figure 1, what is the primary function of the matrix (Component Y)?
Kevlar® is a well-known high-performing material used for reinforcement in composite structures. What best describes its typical reinforcement form?
Which of the following is a key advantage of using composite materials in the production of high-performance sports equipment?
Which of the following is a primary advantage of using composite materials in the production of aerospace components?