Damage tolerance (fatigue properties) of woven fabric nano composites

• Main Author: Wang, Zhihong.
• Other Authors: School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Aeronautical engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/49360
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Composites have been increasingly popular and widely used in various industries, including the aviation industry. More aircrafts parts were replaced by composites for different reasons, lightweight and superior strength in particular, and the trend shows no sign of stopping. In general, composites may differ by their composition and the fabrication method. In recent years, addition of third component in the form of nano-particles has improved composite materials in numerous ways. Much research has been dedicated into this field resulting in new discoveries breakthroughs throughout the years but more work is pouring in, indicative of the potential gap of this field. This study aims to investigate the effects of Graphene on carbon fiber reinforced epoxy composite laminates; tensile properties, heat resistance, post-curing effects and fatigue properties. The amount of Graphene added was 0.5 weight percent (wt %) and comparisons were made with the neat (0.0 wt % Graphene) composite laminate material for each set of test. To develop the carbon fiber reinforced epoxy laminates, hand lay-up method was employed for both the neat composite laminate material and to deposit the Graphene evenly across the carbon fiber fabric piece for the 4 ply laminate lay-up. The effects of Graphene on the composite materials when the fiber orientation is at 0⁰/90⁰ and 45⁰/-45⁰ were also of interest and samples of the two orientations were prepared. The results of the Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) showed that the addition of Graphene had slight improvements on the composite’s post-curing. It improves the increase in glass transition temperature, Tg, from 56.3% increment to 61.3% after post-cure. On the other hand, the Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) yielded results that suggested the addition of Graphene had minimal impact on the heat resistance of the composites under inert test conditions.