The purpose of this research is to develop innovative techniques and combinations of constituents to use composites in agricultural, infrastructural and other relevant industries. Industrial, infrastructural, and biodegradable structural applications using hemp fibers are of interest to enhancing environmental sustainability. The products including graphite or hemp reinforced polymers with different volume fractions and orientations are considered. While a large number of products could be used in the commercial production, we explore only two laminates in this investigation. In this paper we are analyzing interlaminar stress components contributing to delamination of composite laminate. Using analytical techniques, effective response characteristics and interlaminar stresses of representative composites are predicted and given in this paper (Fibure 1). Based upon this research a set of influencing factors will be identified, specific number of composite laminates will be chosen, manufactured, analyzed and tested for their performance characteristics. This is a step towards further research in progress for comparative studies between predicted and experimental values. We have used hemp fiber properties from reference [1]. For hemp fiber the Young’s modulus varies from 2.9 msi to 5.8 msi and Poisson ratio is 0.15. The matrix material properties of EPON 828 with Young’s modulus 0.42 msi and Poisson ratio 0.35 are used from reference [2]. For computation of effective properties, we have used Young’s modulus values 2.9 msi and 5.8 msi separately.
Figure 1: micro and macro modeling for composites.
References
- Bhoopati, R., Ramesh, M, “Mechanical Properties’ Evaluation of Hemp Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composites’, ResearchGate, Sept. 2019
- Soni, S., “The Automated System for Composite Analysis”, Developed by AdTech Systems Research Inc., in Collaboration with AFRL/RX, Technomic Publications Co Inc 1994.