MICROMECHANICS STUDY AND COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF CARBON FIBER REINFORCED EPOXY COMPOSITES FABRICATED BY HAND LAY-UP AND VACUUM ASSISTED RESIN INFUSION PROCESSES
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55766/sujst12583Keywords:
Carbon fabric, Epoxy, Mechanical properties, Micromechanics, Vacuum-assisted resin infusionAbstract
The micromechanical behaviour and mechanical performance of carbon fabric reinforced epoxy (CFRP) produced by two different manufacturing routes are studied in this research work. Hand lay-up and vacuum-assisted resin infusion (VARI) are used to manufacture the CFRP specimens. Water immersion and acid digestion techniques are employed to extract several key material properties. The average density of the VARI specimens after water immersion test is found to be 1.4525 g/cm³. In contrast, the average density of hand lay-up specimens is 1.191 g/cm³. The average fibre volume fraction for VARI specimens is approximately 45%. On the other hand, the average fibre volume fraction of hand lay-up specimens is around 23%. The corresponding average void content for VARI specimens varies between 1.2% and 1.53%. On the other hand, that of hand lay-up varies between 9.58% and 10.56%. Changes in microstructure caused by processing enhances the material's mechanical properties. The tensile testing results indicate that the tensile strength and the elastic modulus of the tensile tested VARI-fabricated specimen are 268.3 MPa and 35.63 GPa respectively. A micromechanical model also shows higher elastic modulus for the VARI-fabricated composite with lower sensitivity to voids. The results suggest that VARI processing offers a cost-effective method for the fabrication of high-performance composite parts and assemblies that have potential applications in the aerospace field.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Arunachalam Vasanthanathan, John Peter Antony Jerold John Britto, Lakshmanan Vigneshwara Mahaprabhu
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