Micro-Thermo-Mechanical Analysis of Glass-Fiber Reinforced Composite (GFRC) using COMSOL
Synopsis
Composites can be defined as hybrid materials that can meet the current research demand. The composite is made by blended/mixed to obtain the desired properties, tailor-made for specific applications. Fiber reinforced composites are widely used for the various applications in construction and the aerospace, automotive, infrastructures and sporting goods industries. Mechanical and thermal properties are evaluated for accurate estimation of their structural response. The mathematical modelling of the formation and testing of composite is a vast area of study for analyzing the mechanics and properties of composites. The paper studies the mechanics of mixing of two pack epoxy resin and glass fiber system and resultant properties of composite sheet. In this composite formed is analyzed by considering representative volumetric element (RVE) on which finite element analysis (FEA) was carried. The property of sheet was determined by the periodicity feature of COMSOL. Two types of studies were carried out one with thermal load and one without thermal load and using standard computation following mechanical properties were calculated Young’s Modulus, Shear Modulus, Poisson’s Ratio and Distortion energy variation along volume (von Miss Stresses Tensor). Then mechanical properties were employed in the estimation of thermal properties like- Coefficient of thermal expansion, thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, and specific heat capacity variation. Moreover, composites were formed by varying fiber volume fraction, using the principle of homogenization and results were compared with standard rule of mixing which shows good convergence with the data given by COMSOL.
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