Experimental investigation of tensile properties in a glass/epoxy sample manufactured by vacuum infusion, vacuum bag and hand layup process

Abstract

In order to achieve a high-quality composite, a proper manufacturing technique should be used. Glass Fiber Reinforced Plastic (GFRP) structures are commonly manufactured using hand layup, vacuum bag and vacuum infusion process (VIP) which are cost effective techniques. This paper compares the tensile strength, modulus, inter-laminar bonding and surface macroscopy of GFRP composites made by hand layup, vacuum bag and VIP process. For this reason, at first GFRP sample were manufactured using these three methods and then tested for tensile properties. In the next step, these samples were modeled numerically and compared. The results show that the strength of the sample made by VIP process is 20 % higher than the hand layup and 11 % higher than vacuum bag sample. Also, the modulus of the sample achieved using VIP is 21 % higher that hand layup and 15% higher than vacuum bag technique. By comparing the failure mechanism of the samples, it was observed that the inter-laminar bonding is highest in VIP and then vacuum bag and lastly hand layup due to a smaller number of voids. Lastly the numerical results showed to have a good agreement with the experimental results.