Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

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Materials Today: Proceedings

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Mechanical properties and optimization of processing parameters for

epoxy/glass fiber reinforced composites
R.S. Umamheshwar rao a,⇑, T. Mahender b
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, JB Institute of Engineering and Technology, Moinabad, Telangana, India
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, CMR Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, Telangana, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Composites are extensively used because of their high strength to weight ratio. Moreover, the use of ver-
Received 5 July 2019 satile synthetic fiber in preparation of the composites with concern toward the environment issues has
Accepted 17 July 2019 led to develop composites using glass fiber reinforced. In the present paper, glass fiber reinforced epoxy
Available online xxxx
composites are synthesized considering three factors viz. epoxy to hardener ratio, curing temperature
and fiber percentage to study the tensile behavior of the composites. The experiments were conducted
Keywords: based on Taguchi L9 orthogonal array considering three design parameters. The experimental data were
Epoxy based composites
analyzed using Taguchi optimization technique and optimum combinations of process parameters values
Glass fiber reinforcement
Taguchi method
for tensile strength was determined. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was carried out to obtain the signif-
ANOVA icance of factors affecting the tensile strength. It was observed from the analysis that the percentage of
ANOM fiber has more significant effect on tensile strength at 95% confidence level.
Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 1st International Con-
ference on Manufacturing, Material Science and Engineering.

1. Introduction In preparing the composite material hand layup process followed

by curing at various temperature was preferred [2]. Taguchi design
Engineers are always looking forward for finding materials hav- of experiments and statistical method was used to analyze the
ing good mechanical properties which can be used in commercial obtained properties from mechanical testing.
applications. Over the last two decades, the use of epoxy-based Lapox resin with K6 hardener [3] is used for preparing compos-
composites in structural applications has been increased tremen- ite material which is more preferred in structural application of
dously, and this dramatic growth is expected to continue [1]. The GFRP. It is expected that glass fiber mats produce more dimen-
process parameters like reinforcement volume percentage or sional stability to lapox matrix material. The viscosity is lower than
weight fraction, fiber orientation, curing temperature and process- the other commercially available type of epoxy resin which eases
ing method are always studied by researchers for finding their the process of preparation of composite material.
effect on properties of the composite materials. For preparation In most of the cases, in recent past it has been observer that the
of composite material with best combination of these processing glass fibers are modified using some chemical treatment and are
parameters shall be studied, which play a vital role in developing used in composite material as reinforcement to improve the
composite materials having better mechanical properties mechanical properties but the improvement in tensile strength of
economically. the composites were not enhanced to the expected level.
In the present paper, the effect of processing parameters like Poly(styrene-co-acrylonitrile) (SAN) was used to modify digly-
fiber weight percentage, epoxy to hardener ratio and curing tem- cidyl ether of bisphenol-A (DGEBA) type epoxy resin cured with
perature on properties of glass fiber reinforced composite (GFRP) dia-mino diphenyl sulfone (DDS) and the modified epoxy resin
materials has been studied. Even though lot of study was carried was used as the matrix for fibre reinforced composites (FRPs) in
out on GFRP such a study was not carried and is worth attempting. order to get improved mechanical and thermal properties[4].
Mechanical properties of composites using modified fiber are
communicated [5]. Epoxy resins is used by chemical modifications
⇑ Corresponding author. to improve properties of composite material, such modifications
E-mail address: [email protected] (R.S. Umamheshwar rao).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.07.641
2214-7853/Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 1st International Conference on Manufacturing, Material Science and Engineering.

Please cite this article as: R. S. Umamheshwar rao and T. Mahender, Mechanical properties and optimization of processing parameters for epoxy/glass fiber
reinforced composites, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.07.641
2 R.S. Umamheshwar rao, T. Mahender / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

Hardener K6 is a low viscosity room temperature curing liquid

hardener. It is commonly employed for hand layup applications.
Being rather reactive, it gives rapid cure at normal ambient tem-
peratures. Laminates can be subjected to operating temperatures
from 20 °C to 100 °C. Lapox L-12 and Hardener K-6 can be mixed
easily at room temperature.
Since three process parameters are considered, an L9 orthogo-
nal array was selected by using Taguchi method [8]. The process
parameter considered in the study and their levels are shown in
Table 1. As per L9 orthogonal array, using Taguchi method a total
of 9 experiments are conducted to study the tensile strength of
the GFRP.

Fig. 1. Epoxy resin and K-6 hardener. 2.2. Fabrication of composites

In prepreg technique, the epoxy impregnated glass fiber cloth is

Table 1 passed through the heating zone [9,10]. It is then pre-cured for
Parameter and their levels. 15 min. at 100 °C or for 3 min. at 150 °C. The prepeg thus obtained
Level/Parameters Code 1 2 3
will be dry-to-touch [11,12]. Number of layers required are propor-
tionately calculated and successively added in order to get 3 mm
E/H ratio A 10 3.33 2
thick composite laminate as per the required weight percentage.
Glass Fiber % B 20 50 80
Temperature (°C) C 20 60 100 The prepregs are further layed in the die and are cured by using
hand layup process. The same procedure is followed to synthesize
the GFRP composites shown in the Table 2.
was made for CTPEGA [carboxyl-terminated poly(ethylene glycol)
adipate] epoxy to improve the properties such as impact strength 2.3. Determination of % glass
and inter-laminar shear stress but modification of epoxy has
increased up to 20% of epoxy on further increase in volume of resin A weighed amount of composite sample was taken and heated
decreased the mechanical properties of the composites. at 80 °C till uniform temperature is obtained. The wt% glass (x) was
High strength glass fiber mat made with magnesium alumina determined from the formula:
silicates [6] can be used where high strength, high stiffness,  
extreme temperature resistance, and corrosive resistance is needed x ¼ ðw0  wÞ  100 =w0
[7].
Such modifications of glass fibers have not proven significant w0 and w are the weight before heating and after heating
improvement in the composite properties. Hence optimization of respectively.
the glass fiber properties without any modification is preferred
to be studied in this paper. The current study is to optimize the 2.4. Mechanical properties
tensile strength (TS) of GFRP using hand layup process. Taguchi’s
optimization technique is used and the process parameters consid- The sample are prepared for tensile test as per ASTM D3039 as
ered are i) epoxy to hardener ratio (E/H ratio) ii) glass fiber per- shown in Fig. 3. The samples were tested for evaluating the
centage and iii) curing temperature. mechanical properties by using universal testing machine. The
crosshead speed was taken as 2 mm/min using the lowest speed
that ruptures the specimen within 1 to 10 min.
2. Experimental

2.1. Materials selection 3. Results and discussions

Lapox L-12 is an unmodified epoxy laminating resin designed The tensile test results obtained as per L9 orthogonal array is
for high performance applications with low viscosity (Fig. 1). It shown in Table 2. The tensile samples before and after the test
can be used with various hardeners for making GFRP. The choice are shown in Fig. 2. Statistical analysis is carried out on tensile
of hardener depends on processing method. strength of GFRP.

Table 2
L9 orthogonal array used in the current study.

S. No. E/H ratio Glass Fiber % Temperature (°C) Tensile Strength (MPa)
A B C TS
1 10 20 20 105.220
2 10 50 60 114.000
3 10 80 100 120.000
4 3.33 20 60 103.468
5 3.33 50 100 140.000
6 3.33 80 20 118.000
7 2 20 100 112.000
8 2 50 20 120.000
9 2 80 60 104.000

Please cite this article as: R. S. Umamheshwar rao and T. Mahender, Mechanical properties and optimization of processing parameters for epoxy/glass fiber
reinforced composites, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.07.641
 R.S. Umamheshwar rao, T. Mahender / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx 3

Fig. 4. ANOM of tensile strength.

Fig. 2. Specimen for Tensile Testing.

3.1. ANOM Table 3

ANOVA Table of tensile strength.
Analysis of mean (ANOM) is the average effect of the parameter Analysis of Variance
on the response. Fig. 4 shows the ANOM of the tensile strength. It
Source DF Seq SS Adj SS Adj MS F p %
can be depicted that a combination of epoxy to hardener ratio of
A 2 128.22 128.218 64.109 19.04 0.050 12.28
3.33, fiber percentage of 50 and curing temperature of 100 °C give
B 2 480.04 480.041 240.021 71.27 0.014 46.01
the maximum tensile strength (i.e A2, B2 and C3). C 2 428.32 428.325 214.162 63.59 0.015 41.05
Residual Error 2 6.74 6.735 3.368 0.64
Total 8 1043.32 521.660
3.2. ANOVA

ANOVA is a statistical method which gives the percentage con-

tribution of the parameter on the response [13]. ANOVA is carried epoxy is completed without any residue of uncured resin. This is
out for the results obtained from the tensile test and is shown in main reason to obtain the high temperature as the better response
Table 3. It can be observed from the Table 3, that the fiber content on tensile strength.
in fabrication of GFPR is contributing more on the tensile strength The reason for less contribution of epoxy to hardener ratio on
followed by curing temperature. The percentage contributions of tensile strength is that, the hardener does not play any role in bear-
the three parameters on tensile strength are 46.04%, 41.05% and ing the load applied on the composite whereas mostly it con-
12.28% respectively. The probability value (p) has shown to be less tributes for formation of cross links to cure the epoxy resin.
than 0.05 (at 95% confidence level) for a parameter, which attri-
butes for the significant effect on the response. In the current
study, the three parameters considered having probability value
less than 0.05 showing significant effect on TS. 4. Conclusions
It is well known fact that the fiber is the main constituent in
composite materials which contribute in increasing the mechani- From the current work it can be concluded that the increase in
cal properties like tensile strength and hardness etc. The fiber in the glass fiber content, increases the mechanical property of the
any composite takes the load applied on it, therefore as the per- composite. The increase in the tensile strength is also attributed
centage of fiber goes on increasing the strength of the composite to be the effect of quantity of hardener used in curing the epoxy
also increases. But epoxy resin or a matrix material help in trans- resin which was found to be A2 in this paper. The Taguchi results
mitting the strength from fiber to fiber. The continuity of the attributed that the experiment with A2B2C3 parameters showed
matrix material will be an important factor which will not be pos- the optimum tensile strength of the composite. The fiber percent-
sible by increasing the hardener percentage above certain limit age is the major constituent attributing for the increase in the ten-
which in the present paper is attributing for reduction in tensile sile strength with 46% contribution. From the results it is also
strength. inferred that the proper temperature is to be maintained to achieve
The second major contribution is the temperature in the fabri- the curing process to be complete is 100 °C for the present compos-
cation of GFRP. At a higher temperature the overall curing of the ite material.

Fig. 3. Specimen dimensions as per ASTM D3039.

Please cite this article as: R. S. Umamheshwar rao and T. Mahender, Mechanical properties and optimization of processing parameters for epoxy/glass fiber
reinforced composites, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.07.641
4 R.S. Umamheshwar rao, T. Mahender / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

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Please cite this article as: R. S. Umamheshwar rao and T. Mahender, Mechanical properties and optimization of processing parameters for epoxy/glass fiber
reinforced composites, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.07.641