Mode-I Fracture Analysis of Thermally Aged of Glass and Glass-Carbon Hybrid Composites
Prasanth C1, Saavan Ravindranath2, A.Samraj3, T.Manikandan4
1Prasanth C, UG Student, Department of Aeronautical Engineering, Jeppiaar Engineering College, Chennai (Tamil Nadu), India.
2Saavan Ravindranath, UG Student, Department of Aeronautical Engineering, Jeppiaar Engineering College, Chennai (Tamil Nadu), India.
3A.Samraj, UG Student, Department of Aeronautical Engineering, Jeppiaar Engineering College, Chennai (Tamil Nadu), India.
4T.Manikandan, Assistant Professor, Department of Aeronautical Engineering, Jeppiaar Engineering College, Chennai (Tamil Nadu), India.
Manuscript received on 11 March 2014 | Revised Manuscript received on 20 March 2014 | Manuscript Published on 30 March 2014 | PP: 84-89 | Volume-3 Issue-10, March 2014 | Retrieval Number: J15490331014/14©BEIESP
Open Access | Editorial and Publishing Policies | Cite | Mendeley | Indexing and Abstracting
© The Authors. Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and Sciences Publication (BEIESP). This is an open access article under the CC-BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Abstract: Fibre reinforced polymer composites find application in domains leading from aerospace to sports gear manufacturing, however the influence of environmental factors such as temperature, and corrosion adversely affects their structural integrity. The objective of the research endeavour is to characterize the fracture toughness behaviour of glass/epoxy and glass-carbon hybrid fibre reinforced composites under detrimental thermal aging conditions. The tests were conducted to predict the mechanical behaviour of both normal and exposed specimens at different thermal aging conditions. The study focuses on the Mode-I Interlaminar Fracture Toughness in terms of strain energy release rate of FRP composites under three different temperatures (-10°C,-20°C and room temperature) with three different aging periods of 150 hours, 300 hours and 500 hours. The energy release rate of material has reduced from room temperature to low temperature due to the catastrophic state of crack propagation. From the final test carried out after 500 hours of aging, the energy release rate of glass-epoxy aged specimens decreases to 10-15% to that of pristine specimens of same material at -20°C but for glass-carbon hybrid specimens the decrease in order of 5-10%. Hence more changes were observed in glass/epoxy specimen than that of hybrid due to an interfacial failure between fibres. The failure mechanism is initiated with matrix cracking at room temperature to fiber shrinkage and fiber breakage at low temperatures. The micro structural failure of pristine and thermally exposed specimens was studied by SEM image.
Keywords: Glass-Epoxy and Glass-Carbon Hybrid Composites, Mode-I Interlaminar Fracture Toughness, Energy Release Rate, Thermal Aging.
Scope of the Article: Composite Materials