EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION ON SINGLE

LAP JOINT OF THREE DIFFERENT COMPOSITES

MATERIALS
R.kalaiyarasan
Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Dhanalakshmi Srinivasan Engineering College,
Perambalur,. Tamil Nadu, India.

Abstract–To improve the efficiency and
performance can be achieved by decreasing the aircraft
weight through considerable usage of composite material
in primary aircraft structures. In fuselage construction it
consist of various structural members such as skin,
stringers, frames, bulkheads etc., all fastened together by
rivets and bolts. The failure of riveted joints take place by
tearing of the plate, shearing of rivet and plate under the
action of over loading. This project deals with the tensile
strength analysis of riveted lap joints of three different
composite materials such as Glass fiber, Basalt fiber and
Carbon fiber are reinforced with epoxy resins. By using
universal testing machine the tensile strength of the riveted
single lap joint of three different composite materials are
tested experimentally
I. INTRODUCTION
Now a days, when the efficiency of the composite materials
with respect to structural design are promulgated, a land mark
on the face of material science, but the efficiency of these
materials are taken into uses since long-long ago. In fact some
of the materials used in ancient days can be regarded as
technological miracles even by present standards. During
the days of Pharaoh in Egypt, it was a common practice to use
chopped straws in bricks, which revented them from cracking.
For the same purpose, plant fibers were used in ancient Inca
and Maya properties. The Egyptian mummy cases were made
of papier-mâché, a kind of composite material containing
sheets of papyrus, which used as writing material in Egypt.
The use of moss for strengthening ice by the Eskimos is
another example of the fabrication of a composite material.
The ancient Israelites prepared bricks by mixing straw with
clay and those materials were used for the building of houses
and other constructions. The structure incorporating bamboo,
used so often by the Chinese, is in fact an excellent fibrous
composite material. The pattern developed in ancient China is
still followed in welding technology. The developments of
advanced composites were the major quest of human beings in
the twentieth century. A lightweight, high-strength, high-
stiffness material, which can be tailored to meet the structural
requirement are some of the virtues which scientists and
engineers in the field of materials and structures have
perennially been searching for in a structural material. The use
of this multiphase composite material promises to fulfill the
needs and open up broad, new horizons whose ultimate
consequences regarding any phase of structural engineering
cannot yet be fully imagined. The development of fibrous
composites for the achievement of high strength-to-weight and
stiffness-to-weight ratios is a task of utmost significance both
with respect to small-scale specimens developed to determine
material properties, and to full-size structural elements. It was
felt that the science of composites is still in its infancy and a
lot of research and development efforts are necessary to
overcome from its preliminary stage. In short, the outstanding
properties of composites like strength and stiffness, low
density, ease of formability and the ability to tailor with
respect to design will have a dramatic, if not revolutionary,
effect on structures, in the years to come.
Composite Material
Composite materials are engineering materials made from two
or more constituent materials that remain separate and distinct
on a macroscopic level while forming a single component.
There are two categories of constituent materials: matrix and
reinforcement. The matrix material surrounds and supports the
reinforcement materials by maintaining their relative
positions. The reinforcements impart their special mechanical
and physical properties to enhance the matrix properties. The
primary functions of the matrix are to transfer stresses
between the reinforcing fibers/particles and to protect them
from mechanical and/or environmental damage whereas the
presence of fibers/particles in a composite improves its
mechanical properties such as strength, stiffness etc. The
objective is to take advantage of the superior properties of
both materials without compromising on the weakness of
either.
Properties
a. Nature of the constituent material (bonding strength)
b. The geometry of the reinforcement (shape, size)
c. The concentration distribution (vol. fraction of
reinforcement)
d. The orientation of the reinforcement (random or
preferred)
Good adhesion (bonding) between matrix phase and displaced
phase provides transfer of load applied to the material to the
displaced phase via the interface. Good adhesion is required
for achieving high level of mechanical properties of
composites. Very small particles less than 0.25 micrometer
finely distributed in the matrix impede movement of
dislocations and deformation of the material. They have
strengthening effect. Large dispersed phase particles have low
share load applied to the material resulting in increase of
stiffness and decrease of ductility.
II. EXPERIMENTAL SET UP
Materials
Glass Fiber, Basalt Fiber and Carbon Fiber, Araldite LY556
and Hardener HY951 as reinforcing agent.Epoxy resins with
its excellent adhesion, low shrinkage, and high mechanical,
electrical and chemical-resistance properties are particularly
useful in composite fabrication. Wide variety of fillets can be
used with epoxy system to reduce the cost, shrinkage,
coefficient of thermal expansion and duration of fabrication. It
-can also provide high resistance power towards the chemical
reaction and prevents the degradation of the material.The
Glass fibers used is of the low alkaline E-type which gives the
best long term strength and weathering properties to the
fabricated part. The mechanical properties of glass fiber
laminates depend cheaply on quantity, orientations of glass Tensile test
fiber used. It has low weight, high strength, high resistance,
corrosion, strong fatigue properties, robust material, less During the tensile test, the ASTM D1708-13 standard
brittle and good ability to be fabricated. It can be easily specimens as mentioned above was striped at two fixtures of
formed using moulding process. the machine and load is applied as per the ASTM D1708-13
standard recommends till the sample was failed into two
Fabrication of laminate segments. During the process, the load vs. deflection is
recorded in the machine and converted into the stress strain
It involves the specimen preparation of standard size from diagram. This stress strain diagram gave the elastic modulus,
bidirectional glass fiber cloth. Here hand layup technique is Poisson’s ratio and ultimate tensile strength of the specimen.
used to prepare the testing specimen.

Raw material

The laminates were made from bidirectional glass fiber

consisting of resins are Glass Fiber, Basalt Fiber and Carbon
Fiber and Araldite LY556.

Preparation of resin

Resin should be equal in weight to that of fiber is weighed and

taken separately. Araldite resin and hardener in the ratio of
10:3 by weight.

Fabrication process:

Fibers of glass are in form of big rolls of cloth. The glass fiber
mat of dimension 300×300 mm was cut from big roll. The
weight of all glass fibers has been measured by using an
electronic weight machine.Place the mould on the table and
apply a thin plastic sheet on the mould called ‘Mila film’. Glass fiber Laminated plate of glass fiber
Apply a thin layer of resin on the surface of the lower mould.
Next place the first layer of glass fiber and use the roller to
squeeze the excess resin. Apply the resin over the first layer of
glass fiber and then place the second layer and again use the
roller to squeeze the excess resin. Repeat the procedure with
alternatively layers of glass fiber and resin mixture until all the
glass fibers were finished. Place the upper mould above it and
close. The glass fiber laminate was prepared. Likewise another
laminate has been prepared by using the plaster of Paris and
Portland cement resin. Basalt fiber Carbon fiber

Curing

The time and temperature required to attain the desired

properties which can be varied by the selection of the system
composition. All the specimens were cured at room
temperature in the fabrication stand.

Cutting of Specimen
Before Tensile test (glass fiber)Before Tensile test (basalt
An electrical motor driven marble cutting machine has been fiber)
used for the cutting purpose. The specimens were fabricated
from the hand layup fabricated panels with following special
precautions. During cutting for tensile testing samples, the
ASTM standard 3039-D has been followed

Dimension for riveting the specimens:

 20
15
Breaking Load (KN)
10
5
0
Glass fibre Breaking Load (KN)
Carbon finre Basalt fibre

Before tensile test (carbon fiber)Universal test machine

Comparison of breaking load

4000
3000

Stress(kN)
2000
1000
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Strain

After tensile test

.III. EXPERIMENTAL RESULT

The mechanical properties of laminated plates were analysed

in terms of experimental methods. The following tables shown
Stress strain curve forbasalt fibre
the properties of tensile strength for glass fibre, basalt fibre,
carbon fibre reinforced epoxy resin riveted lap joint. The
following graphs show the variation of the properties between
glass fibres, basalt fibre, carbon fibre reinforced with epoxy
resin riveted lap joints. The tensile properties of the glass fibre
riveted lap joints. For tensile test the specimen should be in
174 mm length and 25 mm width. Here we obtained two
tensile strength values for the two test specimen respectively.
The tensile properties of carbon fibre reinforced with epoxy 3500
resin riveted lap joints breaking load is 18.80 KN and 18.40 3000
KN respectively and tensile strength is 4.3 Mpa and 4.2 Mpa. 2500
Stress(kN)

The breaking load and tensile strength of basalt fibre 2000

reinforced with epoxy resin riveted lap joints of length 174 1500
mm and width 25 mm. Here we obtained breaking load of two 1000
test specimen is 15.96 mm and 15.80 mm and tensile strength 500
of two test specimen is 3.67 Mpa and 3.63 Mpa respectively. 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Strain

Tensile Strength (Mpa)

4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Glass fibre Carbon fibre Basalt fibre

Tensile Strength (Mpa)

Comparison of tensile strength

4500 7. H.a. Whitworth, m. Othieno, o. Barton, failure
4000 analysis of composite pin loaded joints, vol 63, 2003,
3500 pp. 493-499.
3000
Stress(kN)

2500
2000 8. Tae seonglim, byungchulkim, daigil lee, fatigue
1500 characteristics of the bolted joints for unidirectional
1000 composite laminates”, vol 58, 1998, pp. 409-418.
500
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9. Su-seng pang t, chihdar yang and yizhao, impact
Strain
response of single-lap composite joints”, vol 68,
Stress strain curve for glass fibre 1985, pp. 225-231.

Stress strain curve for carbon fibre

CONCLUSION

The glass fibre, basalt fibre, carbon fibre are reinforced with
epoxy resin were fabricated by hand layup technique. Glass
fibres have good strengthening and toughening effects, high
strength to weight ratio, high corrosion resistance when
compare to carbon fibre, basalt fibre have good thermal
expansion. Basalt fibre, carbon fibre, glass fibre also gives
good toughening and stiffness. The mechanical properties of
glass fibre, basalt fibre, carbon fibre are reinforced with epoxy
composites can be greatly improved by addition of 30% epoxy
resin with hardener gives good tensile strength and other
mechanical properties.The tensile strength on single riveted
lap joint of glass fibre, basalt fibre and carbon fibre are
determined experimentally. From the result we get carbon
fibre has good tensile strength then other two glass fibre. But
carbon fibre are brittle in nature.

REFERENCE

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composite joints
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3. A. Barut, e. Madenci, analysis of bolted–bonded

composite single-lap joints
under combined in-plane and transverse loadingvol
56, 1996, pp. 1341-1348.
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