experimental investigation on the behaviour of fiber reinforced composite material

International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Engineering (IJETE)

Volume 2 Issue 2, February 2015, ISSN 2348 – 8050

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Experimental Investigation on the Behaviour of Fiber

Reinforced Composite Material

M.Manoj Kumar1*

, R.Sathish1, M.DineshKumar

1, M.Pradeep

1

1Department of Mechanical Engineering,

Nadar Saraswathi College of Engineering and Technology, Theni, Tamilnadu, India.

Abstract There have been numerous studies on the composite

laminated structures which find many applications in

many engineering fields namely aerospace, biomedical,

civil, marine and automobile engineering because of

their ease of handling, good mechanical properties and

low fabrication cost. They also possess excellent damage

tolerance and impact resistance. With the development

of automobile technology, more and more light-weight

materials are applied to automobile components. In this

present work, the composite laminate is fabricated

(300mm X 300mm) with different fiber and resin ratio

(1 : 1.5, 1 : 1.75, 1 :2) (i.e.) weight of fiber and resin

along with different ply orientations (0° / 90° / 0° /

90°), (0° / 30° / 60° / 90°) and (0° / +45° / 90°

/ -45°) on the woven glass fiber and polyester resin. The

most important variables like fiber material, matrix

material, fiber orientation, fiber: matrix ratios and the

mechanical behaviour are investigated experimentally as

per ASTM standards in order to determine the strength

of the material like impact, tensile and flexural. From

these test results on different ply orientations and

different fiber : resin ratios, the suitable ply

orientation and the fiber resin ratio can be found out and

used as a alternate material for the application on glass

fiber reinforced polymer composites.

Keywords: Woven Glass Fiber / Polyester, Ply

orientation, Fiber: resin ratios, impact, tensile and

flexural strength.

1. INTRODUCTION

Now a days, fiber reinforced composites are widely used

in various engineering applications including automotive,

aviation, civil engineering structures, etc due to their

lower weight, high specific strength, and stiffness, and

damping characteristics. In recent studies shows that

almost all structures of automobiles will be replaced

with composites like bumper, bonnet etc. Air vehicle

may be subject to impact loads by foreign objects such

as a dropped tool during maintenance. Generally, Fiber

reinforced plastics under loading will be damaged

because of the factors that influence the damage which

include the fiber material, matrix material, fiber

orientation and weight fraction.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

Polymer matrix composites are predominantly used for

the aero space industry, automobile parts. Shivakumar S,

et al.[1] Polymer-matrix composites (PMCs) have

been used for a variety of structural memberships for

chemical plants and airplanes, since they have

outstanding performances, such as lightweight and good

fatigue properties. To hold the long-term durability and

to estimate the residual life of the composites under

some hostile environments, it is an important issue to

clarify the facture and/or the failure mechanism in each

service conditions. Degradation of components made

from polymeric materials occurs in a wide variety of

environments and service conditions, and very often

limits the service lifetime.

Daniel, et.al [2] on failure modes and criteria for their

occurrence in composite columns and beams. They

found that the initiation of the various failure modes

depends on the material properties, geometric

dimensions and type of loading. They reported that the

loading type or condition determines the state of stress

throughout the composite structure, which controls the

location and mode of failure. The appropriate failure

criteria at any point of the structure account for the bi

axiality or tri axiality of the state of stress. Patil

Deogonda ,et al. [3] The present work describes the

development and mechanical characterization of new

polymer composites consisting of glass fiber

reinforcement, epoxy resin and filler materials such as

TiO2 and Zn S. The newly developed composites are

characterized for their mechanical properties.

Experiments like tensile test, three point bending and

impact test were conducted to find the significant

influence of filler material on mechanical characteristics

of GFRP composites.

Topdar et.al [4] for the analysis of composite plates.

This plate theory satisfies the conditions of inter-laminar

shear stress continuity and stress free top and bottom

surfaces of the plate. Moreover, the number of

independent unknowns is the same as that in the first

order shear deformation theory.

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3. EXPERIMENTAL WORK

The Bi-directional Woven E-glass fiber was used with

polyester in this study. The weight of the Bi-directional

Woven E-glass fiber is 230gm in all orientations of the

composite plate and weight of the matrix is varied as a

345gm, 403gm,

and 460gm according to the fiber: matrix ratios. The

Composite laminates are fabricated (300mm X 300mm)

using bi-directional woven E-glass fiber/polyester Resin

with different orientations of fiber as (0° / 90° / 0° / 90°),

(0° / 30° / 60° / 90°) and (0° / +45° / 90° / -45°) with

different weight ratios of fiber: matrix (1: 1.5, 1: 1.75

and 1:2) in each orientation using Hand lay-up method.

At the end of the manufacturing process, the final

thickness of plate was measured as about 4.00mm,

4.1mm, and 4.2 mm for the fiber: matrix ratios of 1:1.5,

1:1.75, and 1:2.The fabricated laminate is shown in fig

1.

Fig.1: Production of Composite Laminate

3.1 MECHANICAL TESTING

3.1.1 Impact test

The impact test specimens are prepared according to the

ASTM standard D256 for determining impact strength

(shown in fig 2) (i.e.) the energy needed to break the

material and it is measured in joules. A notched sample

is generally used to determine impact strength. A test

specimen usually of square crossed section is notched

and held between a pair of jaws, to be broken by a

falling weight. The pendulum was held at a specific

height. When the pendulum of the charpy testing

machine is released it swings with a downward

movement and when it reaches the vertical the hammer

makes contact with the specimen which is broken by the

force of the blow. The results are tabulated in table 1 and

the corresponding graph is plotted and is shown in Fig.5.

Fig.2: Impact test specimen

3.1.2 Tensile Test

The tensile test specimens are prepared according to the

ASTM standard D638 for determining ultimate tensile

strength. It is a fundamental material science test in

which a sample is subjected to uniaxial tension until

failure. A tensile test specimen is a standardized sample

cross section. It has two shoulders and a gauge section

between them, shown in fig 3. The shoulders are large so

they can be readily gripped, whereas the gauge section

has a smaller cross section where deformation and

failure occurs.

Fig.3 Tensile test specimen

The different composite specimen samples are tested in

Universal Testing Machine(UTM). The results are

tabulated in Table 2 and the graph is plotted and is

shown in Fig.6

3.3 Flexural Test

The bending test specimens are prepared according to

the ASTM standard D790 is (shown in fig 4) to define a

materials ability to resist deformation under load. The

testing process involves placing the test specimen in the

universal testing machine and applying force to it until it

bends and the results are tabulated in Table 3 and the

graph is plotted and is shown in Fig.7. The flexural test

measures the force required to bend a material under

three point loading conditions. It is used as an indication

of materials stiffness when flexed.

Fig.4 Flexural test specimen




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Table 1: Impact Test Results

Table 2: Tensile Test Results

Samples Stacking

sequences

Fiber: Matrix

Ratios

Width

(mm)

Thickness

(mm)

Absorbed

Energy

(J)

1.

0°/ 90°/ 0°/ 90°

1:1.5 10.40 4.00 4

2. 1:1.75 10.50 4.10 6

3. 1:2 10.60 4.20 8

4.

0°/ 30°/ 60°/ 90°

1:1.5 10.40 4.00 4

5. 1:1.75 10.50 4.10 10

6. 1:2 10.70 4.20 6

7.

0/ +45°/ 90°/ -45°

1:1.5 10.40 4.00 9

8. 1:1.75 10.50 4.10 4

9. 1:2 10.60 4.20 6

Samples Stacking

sequences

Fiber:

Matrix

Ratios

Width

(mm)

Thickness

(mm)

Force

(N)

Tensile

Strength

(N/mm²)

1.

0°/ 90°/ 0°/

90°

1:1.5 12.40 4.00 7730 152.26

2. 1:1.75 12.50 4.10 8140 160.15

3. 1:2 12.60 4.20 5560 107..62

4.

0°/ 30°/ 60°/

90°

1:1.5 12.40 4.00 4460 81.75

5. 1:1.75 12.60 4.10 5420 116.21

6. 1:2 12.90 4.20 5520 107.01

7.

0/ +45°/ 90°/

-45°

1:1.5 12.40 4.00 4850 126.12

8. 1:1.75 12.50 4.10 5010 117.77

9. 1:2 12.60 4.20 4880 96.91




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Table 3: Flexural Test Results

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Im

pa

ct

s

tr

en

gt

h(

J)

s a m p l e s

Fig.5 Impact Energy of Different Samples

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Samples

Ten

sile

Str

eng

th (

N/m

m2)

Fig.6 Tensile Strength of Different Samples

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Fle

xu

ral

Str

eng

th (

N/m

m2)

samples

Fig.7 Flexural Strength of Different Samples

4. CONCLUSION

In this study, the effects of stacking sequences with

different weight ratios of fiber: matrix of glass/epoxy

laminated composite plates was investigated. The

following conclusions can be drawn from the results

obtained.

The effects of the fiber orientation 0° / 30° / 60° /

90° with fiber matrix proportion 1 : 2 is effective

which absorbs more impact energy when compared

to other fiber orientations and other fiber matrix

proportions.

The effects of the fiber orientation 0°/ 90ο/0

ο/90

ο

with fiber matrix proportion 1 :1.75 which shows

better tensile strength when compared to other

Samples Stacking

sequences

Fiber:

Matrix

Ratios

Width

(mm)

Thickness

(mm)

Force

(N)

Flexural

Load

KN

1.

0°/ 90°/ 0°/

90°

1:1.5 12.10 4.00 570 0.57

2. 1:1.75 12.30 4.10 440 0.44

3. 1:2 12.60 4.20 970 0.97

4.

0°/ 30°/ 60°/

90°

1:1.5 12.10 4.00 370 0.37

5. 1:1.75 12.20 4.10 560 0.56

6. 1:2 12.60 4.20 760 0.76

7.

0/ +45°/ 90°/

-45°

1:1.5 12.10 4.00 490 0.49

8. 1:1.75 12.40 4.10 720 0.72

9. 1:2 12.60 4.20 490 0.49




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fiber orientations and other fiber matrix

proportions.

The effects of the fiber orientation 0°/ 90ο/0

ο/90

ο

with fiber matrix proportion 1 :2 which shows

better flexural strength when compared to other

fiber orientations and other fiber matrix

proportions.

REFERENCES [1]Shiva kumar S,G. S. Guggari „Fiber Reinforced

Polymer Composites‟ International Journal of Advances

in Engineering & Technology, Nov 2011, Vol. 1, Issue 5,

pp. 218-226.

[2] Isaac M. Daniel, Emmanuel E. Gdoutos,

“Deformation and Failure of Composite Structures”,

Journal of Thermoplastic Composite Materials 2003; 16;

345.

[3] Patil Deogonda, Vijaykumar N Chalwa, “Mechanical

Property of Glass Fiber Reinforcement Epoxy

Composites” International Journal of Scientific

Engineering and Research (IJSER), Volume 1 Issue 4,

December 2013

[4] Topdar, A. H. Sheikh and N, “Dhang Finite Element

Analysis of Composite and Sandwich Plates Using a

Continuous Inter-laminar Shear Stress Model” Journal

of Sandwich Structures and Materials 2003; 5; 207.


experimental investigation on the behaviour of fiber reinforced composite material

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