Numerical simulation of solid particle erosion for glass fiber reinforced epoxy composites

Fiber reinforced composite materials have been used in main parts of structures; an accurate evaluation of their erosion behavior becomes very important. In this study, short glass fibre reinforced polyester based isotropic polymer composites are fabricated with five different fibre weight-fractions. The effect of various operational variables, material parameters and their interactive influences on erosive wear behavior of these composites has been studied systematically. After systematic analysis of solid particle erosion for all the five composites, 30wt% short glass fiber reinforced polyester based composite shows better erosion resistance. In order to improve the erosion resistance further ceramic silicon carbide particle is reinforced with the 30wt% glass-polyester based hybrid composites. A ﬁnite element (FE) model (LS-DYNA) of erosive wear is established for damage assessment and validated by a well designed set of experiments. For this, the design of experiments approach using Taguchi’s orthogonal arrays design is used. It is recognized that there is a good agreement between the computational and experimental results, and that the proposed simulation method is very useful for the evaluation of damage mechanisms.

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Influence of fiber orientation on solid particle erosion of uni/multidirectional carbon fiber/glass fiber reinforced epoxy composites

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Part J Journal of Engineering Tribology ◽

10.1177/1350650116666739 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 231 (5) ◽

pp. 594-603 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Mehmet Bagci

Keyword(s):

Carbon Fiber ◽

Glass Fiber ◽

Solid Particle ◽

Fiber Orientation ◽

Mapping Method ◽

Operating Conditions ◽

Epoxy Composites ◽

Solid Particle Erosion ◽

Particle Erosion ◽

Erosion Rates

This article describes the development of unidirectional and multidirectional laminated composites consisting of thermoplastic epoxy resin reinforced with glass/carbon fiber, and studies their solid particle erosion behavior under different operating conditions. The erosion rates of the unidirectional carbon fiber/epoxy composites [0°, 30°, 45°, 60°, 90°] and multidirectional glass fiber/epoxy composites ([0°/−90°/0°], [30°/−60°/30°], [45°/−45°/45°], [60°/−30°/60°], [90°/0°/90°]) were especially scrutinized based on their respective fiber orientations. In addition; the test specimens were evaluated at three different impingement angles of 30°, 60°, and 90° with an impact velocity of 34 m/s. Slightly rounded and irregular Al2O3 particles with an average diameter of 400 µm were used. An optimal fiber orientation combination was determined, which led to minimization of the erosion rate. Moreover, the variation of erosion rates with various laminate orientations were characterized by using X-ray diffraction patterns, 3D digital mapping method, and scanning electron microscopy.

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