FORMING ANALYSIS OF POLYMER MATRIX COMPOSITE

Abstract

Fields like aerospace and automobiles are always in need of lighter materials with good strength. Conventional materials do not satisfy these requirements. Many structural parts used in aerospace and automobile field are of complex shapes which can be manufactured by forming processes. Therefore use of polymer matrix composites having light weight with good process ability, in these fields is increasing. For forming of polymer matrix composites it is important to understand the effect of different design and processing parameters on formability of polymer matrix composites. The present dissertation work illustrates the drawing analysis of polymer matrix composites. Composite sheets were made with the nettle fiber, woven glass fiber and random to fiber as reinforcement in with thermoplastic (polypropylene and polyethylene) and thermosetting (epoxy) matrices. These polymer matrix composites were fabricated on the composite molding machine and also with the hand lay-up process. The drawing process was carried out on the polymer matrix composites with the experimental setup. Parameter used for investigations are punch shape, thickness of sheet, different fiber material and different polymer matrices. Influence of these parameters has been investigated with respect to average failure load and drawing limit measured during the drawing operations. Results indicate that the failure load of woven glass fiber reinforced composite at varying thickness viz. 1mm, 21nm, 3mm in 5 and 10 seconds have far batter load carrying capacity in comparison to the random glass fiber and nettle fiber reinforced composites. The spherical tool led to an early failure in the composites as compared to the chamfered tool. Drawing of the composites with the spherical shaped tool has better drawability as compared to composites formed with the chamfered shaped tool.