Impact Analysis of Sisal Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Resin Composite Material for Automotive Applications

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Date

2017-03

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Addis Ababa University

Abstract

Impact analysis of sisal fiber reinforced Epoxy resin composite material for Automotive Applications Habtamu Dagne Addis Ababa University, 2017 The main goal of this study is to investigate the impact analysis of sisal fiber reinforced epoxy resin composite material for automotive applications using Abaqus/CEA 6.13 software based on ASTM D-7136 standard. For this simulation a [0]4 unidirectional sisal/epoxy composite laminate with overall thickness of 2.16 mm was used, and 0.5kg, 1kg, 2kg and 3kg of impactor mass with 1 m/s, 2 m/s and 3 m/s of velocities were used in order to deal their effects on the composite laminate. Generally, in order to get the Abaqus/Explicit software in put data’s, first the sisal fiber was extracted manually from the sisal plants and treated with 8% of NaOH. Then the testing specimens was manufactured using volume fraction of 60% matrix and 40% of sisal fibers using vacuum bagging assisted hand lay-up technique (VBAHT) , and finally the tensile, compression and in-plane shear test was conducted based on their ASTM standards. The impact simulation results showed that when the impactor mass and velocity increases, the contact forces of the composite plate was increase up to 1kg of the impactor with 3m/s. Apart from that, the reaction forces of the composite plate was decreased and perforation of the plate was takes place for 2kg and 3kg of impactor mass. From all force-time history graph, the highest reaction force of 656.69 N occurred at 1kg of impactor for 3m/s. Furthermore it is found that the sisal fiber reinforced epoxy resin composite material has a good energy absorption capacity (up to 4.5 J) in the transverse direction and can have a potential to be used for different automotive application. Keywords: composites, sisal, epoxy, impactor, VBAHT, ASTM, Abaqus/CEA 6.13

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Keywords

composites;sisal;epoxy;impactor,;VBAHT; ASTM,;Abaqus/CEA 6.13

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