An experimental study on mechanical properties of Kevlar composite for aircraft structural applications

Abstract

Kevlar composite are widely used in various structural applications including aircraft wing fuselage skin, automobiles and space vehicles due to their lighter in weight and high strength material which can be replace with steel. It has low density and high modulus of para-aramid synthetic fiber. The proposed Kevlar fabric with 2D plain-woven pattern was reinforced with polyester resin is used as composite. Based on literature work, the sample laminates were designed and fabricated using compression molding process at room temperature and material cutting process was performed by using waterjet machining to achieve the accurate shape and size of the composite during the fabrication and also it reduces the manufacturing defects and provides the better binding properties. The results, in which it improves structural stability of composite with increase the mechanical properties of flexural strength and tensile strength of the Kevlar composite. In this paper, an attempt is made to investigate the mechanical properties of Kevlar composite by performing various mechanical test on UTM (flexural test and tensile test) and the evaluation of maximum tensile strength and flexural bending strength, deflection and other parameters etc. and comparative study on failure behavior of sample laminates on the post tensile test and flexural test.