Characterizing thin and thick fibre-reinforced thermoplastic composites

• Main Author: Sim, Zane Jun Yu
• Other Authors: Sunil Chandrakant Joshi
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2024
• Subjects: Engineering; Thin and thick thermoplastic composites
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/181908
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This final year project focuses on characterising thick and thin thermoplastic composites used in various industries from aerospace to marine to sports. This project involves fabricating thermoplastic composites of various shapes and sizes that are required in flexural and compression tests. A hot press machine was used in manufacturing the thermoplastic composites. The cured composites were then cut with a bandsaw machine with the dimensions recommended by ASTM guidelines. Instron universal testing machine was used to carry out 3-piont bending tests and compression tests. Force-displacement graphs are generated using the machine’s software. These graphs are then converted into stress-strain curves through appropriate calculations. Key properties such as the yield point, elastic modulus, and buckling strength are subsequently determined from the stress-strain data. Parameters such as composite qualities, are calculated from the dimensions and weight of the composite. Microscopy was done with a Olympus SZX16 microscope to identify any forms of delamination and buckling on the specimens, pictures of the failures were taken with the device’s software.