ANALYSIS OF MECHANICAL BEHAVIOR OF TERMOPLASTIC COMPOSITES

Abstract

This paper presents the effect of fiber orientation on the tensile, compression, impact, and flexural properties of glass fiber reinforced acrylic-based thermoplastic composites. The mechanical behavior of three different composite plates, produced by the resin transfer molding (RTM) method, with 0o/90o/45o, 0o/90o and ±45o glass fiber orientations were investigated by carrying out tensile, compression, three-point bending and Charpy impact tests. A Weibull distribution model was implemented to explain the variation in mechanical properties of the acrylic-based composite. According to Weibull analysis results with 63.2% probability, the highest tensile strength (561 MPa), compressive strength (293 MPa) and impact values (19.44 J) were obtained when the plate with 0o/90o glass fiber orientation was tested, whereas the highest flexural strength was obtained when the plate with 0o/90o/45o was tested.