EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION ON SINGLE

LAP JOINT OF THREE DIFFERENT COMPOSITE

MATERIALS
S. Gowtham* , A. Sathakathulla**& kalai
* PG Scholar, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Anna University
, Thirunalveli , Tamil Nadu, India
** Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Trichy
Engineering College,Konalai,Trichy. Tamil Nadu, India

*** kalai arasan

To improve the efficiency and performance can be achieved by decreasing the

aircraft weight through considerable usage of composite material in primary
aircraft structures. In fuselage construction it consist of various structural
members such as skin, stringers, frames, bulkheads etc., all fastened together
by rivets and bolts. The failure of riveted joints take place by tearing of the
plate, shearing of rivet and plate under the action of over loading. This project
deals with the tensile strength analysis of riveted lap joints of three different
composite materials such as Glass fiber, Basalt fiber and Carbon fiber are
reinforced with epoxy resins. By using universal testing machine the tensile
strength of the riveted single lap joint of three different composite materials
are tested experimentally.

INTRODUCTION

Now a days, when the efficiency of the composite materials with respect to
structural design are promulgated, a land mark on the face of material science, but
the efficiency of these materials are taken into uses since long-long ago. In fact
some of the materials used in ancient days can be regarded as technological
miracles even by present standards. During the days of Pharaoh in Egypt, it was
a common practice to use chopped straws in bricks, which revented them from
cracking. For the same purpose, plant fibers were used in ancient Inca and Maya
properties. The Egyptian mummy cases were made of papier-mâché, a kind of
composite material containing sheets of papyrus, which used as writing material in
Egypt. The use of moss for strengthening ice by the Eskimos is another example of
the fabrication of a composite material. The ancient Israelites prepared bricks by
mixing straw with clay and those materials were used for the building of houses
and other constructions. The structure incorporating bamboo, used so often by the
Chinese, is in fact an excellent fibrous composite material. The pattern developed
in ancient China is still followed in welding technology. The developments of
advanced composites were the major quest of human beings in the twentieth
century. A lightweight, high-strength, high-stiffness material, which can be tailored
to meet the structural requirement are some of the virtues which scientists and
engineers in the field of materials and structures have perennially been searching
for in a structural material. The use of this multiphase composite material promises
to fulfill the needs and open up broad, new horizons whose ultimate consequences
regarding any phase of structural engineering cannot yet be fully imagined. The
development of fibrous composites for the achievement of high strength-to-weight
and stiffness-to-weight ratios is a task of utmost significance both with respect to
small-scale specimens developed to determine material properties, and to full-size
structural elements. It was felt that the science of composites is still in its infancy
and a lot of research and development efforts are necessary to overcome from its
preliminary stage. In short, the outstanding properties of composites like strength
and stiffness, low density, ease of formability and the ability to tailor with respect
to design will have a dramatic, if not revolutionary, effect on structures, in the
years to come.
Composite Material

Composite materials are engineering materials made from two or more

constituent materials that remain separate and distinct on a macroscopic level while
forming a single component. There are two categories of constituent materials:
matrix and reinforcement. The matrix material surrounds and supports the
reinforcement materials by maintaining their relative positions. The reinforcements
impart their special mechanical and physical properties to enhance the matrix
properties. The primary functions of the matrix are to transfer stresses between the
reinforcing fibers/particles and to protect them from mechanical and/or
environmental damage whereas the presence of fibers/particles in a composite
improves its mechanical properties such as strength, stiffness etc. The objective is
to take advantage of the superior properties of both materials without
compromising on the weakness of either.
Properties

a. Nature of the constituent material (bonding strength)

b. The geometry of the reinforcement (shape, size)

c. The concentration distribution (vol. fraction of reinforcement)

d. The orientation of the reinforcement (random or preferred)

Good adhesion (bonding) between matrix phase and displaced phase provides
transfer of load applied to the material to the displaced phase via the interface.
Good adhesion is required for achieving high level of mechanical properties of
composites. Very small particles less than 0.25 micrometer finely distributed in the
matrix impede movement of dislocations and deformation of the material. They
have strengthening effect. Large dispersed phase particles have low share load
applied to the material resulting in increase of stiffness and decrease of ductility.
 EXPERIMENTAL SET UP

Materials

Glass Fiber, Basalt Fiber and Carbon Fiber, Araldite LY556 and Hardener HY951
as reinforcing agent. Epoxy resins with its excellent adhesion, low shrinkage, and
high mechanical, electrical and chemical-resistance properties are particularly
useful in composite fabrication. Wide variety of fillets can be used with epoxy
system to reduce the cost, shrinkage, coefficient of thermal expansion and duration
of fabrication. It can also provide high resistance power towards the chemical
reaction and prevents the degradation of the material. The Glass fibers used is of
the low alkaline E-type which gives the best long term strength and weathering
properties to the fabricated part. The mechanical properties of glass fiber laminates
depend cheaply on quantity, orientations of glass fiber used. It has low weight,
high strength, high resistance, corrosion, strong fatigue properties, robust material,
less brittle and good ability to be fabricated. It can be easily formed using
moulding process.

Fabrication of laminate

It involves the specimen preparation of standard size from bidirectional glass fiber
cloth. Here hand layup technique is used to prepare the testing specimen.

Raw material

The laminates were made from bidirectional glass fiber consisting of resins are
Glass Fiber, Basalt Fiber and Carbon Fiber and Araldite LY556.

Preparation of resin

Resin should be equal in weight to that of fiber is weighed and taken separately.
Araldite resin and hardener in the ratio of 10:3 by weight.
Fabrication process:

Fibers of glass are in form of big rolls of cloth. The glass fiber mat of dimension
300×300 mm was cut from big roll. The weight of all glass fibers has been
measured by using an electronic weight machine. Place the mould on the table and
apply a thin plastic sheet on the mould called ‘Mila film’. Apply a thin layer of
resin on the surface of the lower mould. Next place the first layer of glass fiber and
use the roller to squeeze the excess resin. Apply the resin over the first layer of
glass fiber and then place the second layer and again use the roller to squeeze the
excess resin. Repeat the procedure with alternatively layers of glass fiber and resin
mixture until all the glass fibers were finished. Place the upper mould above it and
close. The glass fiber laminate was prepared. Likewise another laminate has been
prepared by using the plaster of Paris and Portland cement resin.

Curing

The time and temperature required to attain the desired properties which can be
varied by the selection of the system composition. All the specimens were cured at
room temperature in the fabrication stand.

Cutting of Specimen

An electrical motor driven marble cutting machine has been used for the cutting
purpose. The specimens were fabricated from the hand layup fabricated panels
with following special precautions. During cutting for tensile testing samples, the
ASTM standard 3039-D has been followed.

Dimension for riveting the specimens:

Tensile test

During the tensile test, the ASTM D1708-13 standard specimens as mentioned
above was striped at two fixtures of the machine and load is applied as per the
ASTM D1708-13 standard recommends till the sample was failed into two
segments. During the process, the load vs. deflection is recorded in the machine
and converted into the stress strain diagram. This stress strain diagram gave the
elastic modulus, Poisson’s ratio and ultimate tensile strength of the specimen.

Glass fiber Laminated plate of glass fiber

Basalt fiber Carbon fiber

 Before Tensile test (glass fiber) Before Tensile test (basalt fiber)

Before tensile test (carbon fiber) Universal test machine

 After tensile test

EXPERIMENTAL RESULT

The mechanical properties of laminated plates were analysed in terms of

experimental methods. The following tables shown the properties of tensile
strength for glass fibre, basalt fibre, carbon fibre reinforced epoxy resin riveted lap
joint. The following graphs show the variation of the properties between glass
fibres, basalt fibre, carbon fibre reinforced with epoxy resin riveted lap joints. The
tensile properties of the glass fibre riveted lap joints. For tensile test the specimen
should be in 174 mm length and 25 mm width. Here we obtained two tensile
strength values for the two test specimen respectively. The tensile properties of
carbon fibre reinforced with epoxy resin riveted lap joints breaking load is 18.80
KN and 18.40 KN respectively and tensile strength is 4.3 Mpa and 4.2 Mpa. The
breaking load and tensile strength of basalt fibre reinforced with epoxy resin
riveted lap joints of length 174 mm and width 25 mm. Here we obtained breaking
load of two test specimen is 15.96 mm and 15.80 mm and tensile strength of two
test specimen is 3.67 Mpa and 3.63 Mpa respectively.

Tensile Strength (Mpa)

4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Glass fibre Carbon fibre Basalt fibre

Tensile Strength (Mpa)

Comparison of tensile strength

 Breaking Load (KN)
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Glass fibre Carbon finre Basalt fibre

Breaking Load (KN)

Comparison of breaking load

4000
3500
3000
2500
Stress(kN)

2000
1500
1000
500
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Strain

Stress strain curve for basalt fibre

 3500

3000

2500
Stress(kN)

2000

1500

1000

500

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Strain

Stress strain curve for glass fibre

4500
4000
3500
3000
Stress(kN)

2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Strain

Stress strain curve for carbon fibre

 CONCLUSION

The glass fibre, basalt fibre, carbon fibre are reinforced with epoxy resin were
fabricated by hand layup technique. Glass fibres have good strengthening and
toughening effects, high strength to weight ratio, high corrosion resistance when
compare to carbon fibre, basalt fibre have good thermal expansion. Basalt fibre,
carbon fibre, glass fibre also gives good toughening and stiffness. The mechanical
properties of glass fibre, basalt fibre, carbon fibre are reinforced with epoxy
composites can be greatly improved by addition of 30% epoxy resin with hardener
gives good tensile strength and other mechanical properties. The tensile strength on
single riveted lap joint of glass fibre, basalt fibre and carbon fibre are determined
experimentally. From the result we get carbon fibre has good tensile strength then
other two glass fibre. But carbon fibre are brittle in nature.

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