Ultrasonic Welding of Glass Fiber Reinforced PP Thermoplastic Composites: An Investigation of the Outer Layer Orientation and the Fiber Volume Fraction

2020 ◽  
Vol 858 ◽  
pp. 3-13
Author(s):  
Murtada Abass A. Alrubaie
Keyword(s):  
Shear Strength ◽  
Glass Fiber ◽  
Outer Layer ◽  
Fiber Volume Fraction ◽  
Volume Fraction ◽  
Welding Process ◽  
Ultrasonic Welding ◽  
Fiber Volume ◽  
Energy Director ◽  
Welding Pressure

This paper presents an experimental study of the influence of the orientation of the outer layer of polypropeylene (PP) reinforced with E-glass fiber laminate (GF/PP) and the influence of the fiber volume fraction on the quality of the welded joint using an ultrasonic welding process. An orthogonal L 16 array (OA) design of experiment was conducted in this paper based on the Taguchi method to evaluate the effect of the orientation of the outer layer and the fiber volume fraction, on the welding process parameters; the welding energy, the amplitude of vibration, the welding pressure, the holding pressure and the holding time were considered in order to achieve a high weld quality. The experiments were carried out using a 15 kHz ultrasonic welding unit with a maximum supplied power of 4000-Watt. GF/PP laminates with fiber volume fraction of 36% and 46% were used in this paper, and the GF/PP laminates were either unidierctional or had a 90 degree outer layer orienation. A 0.127 mm thick polypropeylene film was used as a flat energy director (ED). The evaluation of the weld quality was measured by the apparent shear strength of the single lap welded joints, and by using laser shearography as a non-destructive inspection technique . The failure mechanism of the single lap joint was monitored, using a high speed digital imaging system. A combination of the highest selected level of welding energy, lowest level of amplitude, lowest level of welding pressure, and the lowest level of both hold time and hold pressure of a unidirectional GF/PP with the lowest fiber volume fraction, were found to achieve a higher apparent shear strength of the welded adherends, as compared with the apparent shear strength obtained with the presence of the flat energy director for the same level of factors. A confirmation experiment was conducted to measure the predicted apparent shear strength and compare it with the measured apparent shear strength from the test.

Shear strength of reinforced concrete beams with a fiber concrete matrix

2006 ◽  
Vol 33 (6) ◽  
pp. 726-734 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fariborz Majdzadeh ◽  
Sayed Mohamad Soleimani ◽  
Nemkumar Banthia
Keyword(s):  
Shear Strength ◽  
Reinforced Concrete ◽  
Fiber Volume Fraction ◽  
Volume Fraction ◽  
Fiber Reinforcement ◽  
Shear Capacity ◽  
Fiber Reinforced Concrete ◽  
Rc Beams ◽  
Fiber Reinforced ◽  
Fiber Volume

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of fiber reinforcement on the shear capacity of reinforced concrete (RC) beams. Both steel and synthetic fibers at variable volume fractions were investigated. Two series of tests were performed: structural tests, where RC beams were tested to failure under an applied four-point load; and materials tests, where companion fiber-reinforced concrete (FRC) prisms were tested under direct shear to obtain material properties such as shear strength and shear toughness. FRC test results indicated an almost linear increase in the shear strength of concrete with an increase in the fiber volume fraction. Fiber reinforcement enhanced the shear load capacity and shear deformation capacity of RC beams, but 1% fiber volume fraction was seen as optimal; no benefits were noted when the fiber volume fraction was increased beyond 1%. Finally, an equation is proposed to predict the shear capacity of RC beams.Key words: shear strength, fiber-reinforced concrete, RC beam, stirrups, energy absorption capacity, steel fiber, synthetic fiber.

Single and repeated low-velocity impact response of E-glass fiber-reinforced epoxy and polypropylene composites for different impactor shapes

2019 ◽  
pp. 089270571988691 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akar Dogan
Keyword(s):  
Glass Fiber ◽  
Fiber Volume Fraction ◽  
Volume Fraction ◽  
Low Velocity Impact ◽  
Fiber Reinforced ◽  
Low Velocity ◽  
Fiber Volume ◽  
Velocity Impact ◽  
Polypropylene Composites ◽  
Glass Fiber Reinforced

This study focuses on the effects of low-velocity impact (LVI) response of thermoset (TS) and thermoplastic (TP) matrix-based composites. In this study, the effects of the impactor shapes on the low-velocity impact response of the composite panels that produced from different matrix was investigated. Unidirectional E-glass fiber fabrics with an areal density of 300 g/m2 as reinforcement and epoxy matrix were used to produce TS composite. The vacuum-assisted resin infusion molding (VARIM) method was used to manufacture composite panels. The thermoplastic composites were manufactured with E-glass fiber-reinforced polypropylene prepregs. The tensile strength of TS matrix-based composites is higher than TP matrix-based composites that have the same fiber volume fraction. Despite being under the same impact energy, the TP specimens possess higher perforation threshold than TS specimens. The shape of the impactor significantly affected the perforation threshold. Besides, the impact number that caused perforation reduced dramatically in conical impactor. The repeated impact number that caused perforation is 36 for hemispherical (HS) impactor, but it is only 3 for conical impactor for polypropylene matrix-based composite. Moreover, a significant effect of fiber volumetric ratio on impact resistance was observed. The perforation threshold of glass fiber-reinforced polypropylene composites for 40% and 50% fiber volume fraction are 61 and 98 J, respectively. The perforation threshold of TP and TS specimens for HS impactor that has the same stacking sequence is 61 and 55 J, respectively.

Effects of vacuum pressure, inlet pressure, and mold temperature on the void content, volume fraction of polyester/e-glass fiber composites manufactured with VARTM process

2011 ◽  
Vol 45 (26) ◽  
pp. 2727-2742 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vishwanath R. Kedari ◽  
Basil I. Farah ◽  
Kuang-Ting Hsiao
Keyword(s):  
Glass Fiber ◽  
Fiber Volume Fraction ◽  
Volume Fraction ◽  
Fiber Composite ◽  
Mold Temperature ◽  
Vacuum Pressure ◽  
Inlet Pressure ◽  
Void Content ◽  
Fiber Volume ◽  
Vartm Process

Vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM) process is one of the liquid composite molding (LCM) processes aimed at producing high-quality composite parts. The void content and fiber volume fraction of a VARTM part can be affected by many parameters and is critical to the mechanical properties and the quality of the part. In this paper, a series of experiments were conducted with a heated dual pressure control VARTM setup for investigating the effects of vacuum pressure, inlet pressure, and mold temperature on the void content and fiber volume fraction of polyester/E-glass fiber composite. It was found that stronger vacuum and higher mold temperature can better control and increase the fiber volume fraction; however, such a combination of strong vacuum and high mold temperature may also require a reduced inlet pressure for minimizing the void content. The need of pressure reduction can be explained with the compatibility between Darcy's flow and capillary flow in the fiber preform and can be calculated based on the room temperature VARTM results. The experimental results suggest that high mold temperature, high vacuum, and appropriately reduced inlet pressure can produce a VARTM part with high fiber volume fraction and low void content.

scholarly journals Steel Fiber Enhancement upon Punching Shear Strength of Concrete Flat Plates Exposed to Fire Flame

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (10) ◽  
pp. 1667-1678
Author(s):  
Ahmed Naji Dalaf ◽  
Shatha Dheyaa Mohammed
Keyword(s):  
Shear Strength ◽  
Fiber Volume Fraction ◽  
Steel Fiber ◽  
Volume Fraction ◽  
Punching Shear ◽  
Flat Plates ◽  
Fiber Volume ◽  
Steady State Temperature ◽  
Fire Effect ◽  
Fire Flame

In this study, the effect of fire flame on the punching shear strength of steel fiber reinforced concrete flat plates was experimentally investigated using nine half-scale specimens with dimensions of 1500×1500 mm and a total thickness of 100 mm. The main investigated variables comprised the steel fiber volume fraction 0, 1, and 1.5% and the burning steady state temperature 500 and 600 °C. The specimens were divided into three groups, each group consists of three specimens. The specimens in the first group were tested with no fire effect to be the reference specimens, while the others of the second and third groups were tested after being exposed to fire-flame effect. The adopted characteristics of the fire test were; (one hour) burning time duration and 500 and 600 °C steady state temperature with sudden cooling process (water sprinkling directly after burning). The test results proved that exposing to direct fire effect for one hour caused a reduction in the punching shear strength with an increase in the ultimate mid-span deflection. Also, it was noticed that using steel fiber in the concrete mix leads to a significant increase in the punching shear strength for both the unburned and burned specimens. The ultimate punching load increased by about 11 and 16.6% for the unburned specimens with 1.0 and 1.5% steel fiber volume fraction, respectively, and by about 22.4 and 19% for the burned specimens at 500 °C with 1.0 and 1.5% steel fiber volume fraction, respectively. While, it was increased by about 29.2 and 21.5% for the burned specimens at 600 °C with 1.0 and 1.5% steel fiber volume fraction, respectively, as compared with the reference specimen of each group. Doi: 10.28991/cej-2021-03091751 Full Text: PDF

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