Mechanical properties of fiber reinforced polymer composites: A comparative study of conventional and additive manufacturing methods

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (23) ◽  
pp. 3173-3181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kuldeep Agarwal ◽  
Suresh K Kuchipudi ◽  
Benoit Girard ◽  
Matthew Houser

Fiber reinforced polymer composites have been around for many decades but recently their use has started to increase in multiple industries such as automotive, aerospace, and construction. The conventional composite manufacturing processes such as wet lay-up, resin transfer molding, automatic lay ups etc. suffer from a lot of practical and material issues which have limited their use. The mechanical properties of the parts produced by such processes also suffer from variation that causes problems downstream. Composites based additive manufacturing processes such as Fused Deposition Modeling and Composite Filament Fabrication are trying to remove some of the barriers to the use of composites. Additive manufacturing processes offer more design and material freedom than conventional composite manufacturing processes. This paper compares conventional composite processes for the manufacturing of Epoxy-Fiberglass fiber reinforced polymers with composite filament fabrication based Nylon-Fiberglass fiber reinforced polymers. Mechanical properties such as tensile strength, elastic modulus, and fatigue life are compared for the different processes. The effect of process parameters on these mechanical properties for the composite filament fabrication based process is also examined in this work. It is found that the composite filament fabrication based process is very versatile and the parts manufactured by this process can be used in various applications.

2015 ◽  
Vol 766-767 ◽  
pp. 133-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeswin Arputhabalan ◽  
K. Palanikumar

This paper deals with tensile properties of natural fiber reinforced polymer composites. Natural fibers have recently found increasing use in various fields as an alternative to synthetic fiber reinforced polymers. Due to this they have become attractive to engineers, researchers and scientists. Natural fibers are replacing conventional fibers such as glass, aramid and carbon due to their eco-friendly nature, lesser cost, good mechanical properties, better specific strength, bio-degradability and non-abrasive characteristics. The adhesion between the fibers and the matrix highly influence the tensile properties of both thermoset and thermoplastic natural fiber reinforced polymer composites. In order to enhance the tensile properties by improving the strength of fiber and matrix bond many chemical modifications are normally employed. In most cases the tensile strengths of natural fiber reinforced polymer composites are found to increase with higher fiber content, up to a maximum level and then drop, whereas the Young’s modulus continuously increases with increasing fiber loading. It has been experimentally found that tensile strength and Young’s modulus of reinforced composites increased with increase in fiber content [1].


2019 ◽  
Vol 299 ◽  
pp. 06005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Bere ◽  
Emilia Sabău ◽  
Cristian Dudescu ◽  
Calin Neamtu ◽  
Marius Fărtan

The fiber reinforced polymers (FRP) represent a group of materials with a very impressive development in the last time. There are used in different applications from aerospace to sports or medicine. Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) has special properties and tend to replace traditional materials like steel, aluminum alloys or wood. Different procedures were developed to manufacture the CFRP. Autoclave processing can be considered the most important way to obtain the best mechanical properties of this kind of material. In this paper it is presented the autoclave manufacturing process to obtain theCFRP plates. The autoclave polymerization process steps are indicated for the CFRP made of Twill textile prepreg material. The stacking sequence of the layers is [0/90]. To determine the mechanical properties of the material tensile test on standardized specimens was employed. The obtained mechanical material’s properties are comparable with steel but its density was reduced 5.5 times.


Materials ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 651 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanley Ofoegbu ◽  
Mário Ferreira ◽  
Mikhail Zheludkevich

Carbon is used as a reinforcing phase in carbon-fiber reinforced polymer composites employed in aeronautical and other technological applications. Under polarization in aqueous media, which can occur on galvanic coupling of carbon-fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) with metals in multi-material structures, degradation of the composite occurs. These degradative processes are intimately linked with the electrically conductive nature and surface chemistry of carbon. This review highlights the potential corrosion challenges in multi-material combinations containing carbon-fiber reinforced polymers, the surface chemistry of carbon, its plausible effects on the electrochemical activity of carbon, and consequently the degradation processes on carbon-fiber reinforced polymers. The implications of the emerging use of conductive nano-fillers (carbon nanotubes and carbon nanofibers) in the modification of CFRPs on galvanically stimulated degradation of CFRP is accentuated. The problem of galvanic coupling of CFRP with selected metals is set into perspective, and insights on potential methods for mitigation and monitoring the degradative processes in these composites are highlighted.


2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (11) ◽  
pp. 1525-1546 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yue Mu ◽  
Anbiao Chen ◽  
Guoqun Zhao ◽  
Yujia Cui ◽  
Jiejie Feng ◽  
...  

The fiber-reinforced polymer composites are important alternative for conventional structural materials because of their excellent comprehensive performance and weight reduction. The mechanical properties of such composite materials are mainly determined by the fiber orientation induced through practical manufacturing process. In the study, a through process modeling (TPM) method coupling the microstructure evolution and the mechanical properties of fiber-reinforced composites in practical processing is presented. The numerical methodology based on the finite volume method is performed to investigate three-dimensional forming process in the injection molding of fiber-reinforced composites. The evolution of fiber orientation distribution is successfully predicted by using a reduced strain closure model. The corresponding finite volume model for TPM is detailedly derived and the pressure implicit with splitting of operators (PISO) algorithm is employed to improve computational stability. The flow-induced multilayer structure is successfully predicted according to essential flow characteristics and the fiber orientation distribution. The mechanical properties of such anisotropy composites is further calculated based on the stiffness analysis and the Tandon–Weng model. The improvement of mechanical properties in each direction of the injection molded product are evaluated by using the established mathematical model and numerical algorithm. The influences of the geometric structure of injection mold cavity, the fiber volume fractions, and the fiber aspect ratios on the mechanical properties of composite products are further discussed. The mathematical model and numerical method proposed in the study can be successfully adopted to investigate the structural response of composites in practical manufacturing process that will be helpful for optimum processing design.


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