Mechanical Characterization of Composites Manufactured by RTM Process: Effect of Fiber Content, Strain Rate and Orientation

Abstract

High performance composites are exposed to severe loading and environmental conditions. In this work, mechanical properties of Fiberglass Reinforced Polyester (FRP) manufactured by resin transfer molding were evaluated. The effect of the strain rate on mechanical properties under three quasi-static testing conditions, four fiber contents and several orientations was studied using instrumented tensile tests. A model was fitted to predict Tensile strength, Young's modulus and shear modulus and the failed samples were analyzed to understand the failure mechanisms. The results showed that the fitted model is reliable enough to conclude about the effect of the fiber volume fraction and the strain rate on the mechanical properties. Young's modulus and tensile strength increased when the strain rate is higher. Tensile strength also increased with fiber content (Vf) up to 41%. The predominant failure mechanism is fiber rupture for the main directions and for the off-axis directions, the failure mechanisms are fiber pullout and delamination.

Effect of quasi-static and intermediate strain rates on the tensile properties of hybrid polymer composites

“…As the strain rate increases, the polymeric chains in the matrix have less time to realign significantly, resulting in a distortion in intermolecular distances, which increases elastic modulus. 43 The strain behaviour of adjacent layers with different types of fibres differs in hybrid laminates, which increases the effectiveness of the mechanisms described above, resulting in increased stiffening of hybrid laminates under tensile loading.…”

The Effect of Gelcoat and Lamination Plan on Mechanical Properties of the Final Product in RTM Method

“…Fiber takviyeli plastikler (FRP), sert cam fiber takviye ve sünek polimer matristen oluşan kompozit malzeme türleridir (Santa et al 2016). FRP'ler uzay, havacılık, enerji, otomotiv ve birçok alanda sunduğu avantajlar ile ön plana çıkmaktadır (Falaschetti et al 2020).…”

Mechanical Properties of GFRPs Exposed to Tensile, Compression and Tensile–Tensile Cyclic Tests

“…The effects of the difference in mechanical properties between stiffness fibers, such as glass fibers and flexible matrices, obtaining an elastomeric composite were investigated in [ 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 ]. Regarding the correlation between different fiber orientations of the reinforcement structure and changes of fiber angles related to the load direction, research papers [ 30 , 31 ] pointed out that the minimum elastic modulus was recorded in case of fibers angle orientation of 60°, and the maximum for 0°. Even though the literature is very rich in experimental investigations and notable results, it is observed that little information is available about the structural and mechanical deterioration of composites subjected to tensile–tensile cyclic test, obtaining the hysteresis loops of stress–strain curves.…”