Compressive Behavior of Glass Fiber Reinforced Plastic Laminates with Drilled Hole

Abstract

The polymer matrix composites (PMCs) are increasingly being used in structural applications owing to their superior mechanical properties. The in-service performance of composite materials requires them to perform under a variety of loading environments. Although a lot of research work has been done towards the mechanical characterization of PMCs, a lot remains to be done in special cases such as characterization of glass fiber reinforced plastics (GFRP) laminates with drilled hole. It is an established fact that drilling in composite laminates causes damage around the drilled hole and the damage influences the mechanical behavior of GFRP laminates under different loading conditions. The present investigation aims at studying the compressive behavior of GFRP laminates with drilled holes. The holes have been drilled at various input parameters (cutting speed, feed rate and drill point geometry) and the effect of these parameters on the compressive behavior of the GFRP laminates has been investigated using statistically designed experiments. It has been found that the drilling parameters significantly affect the compressive behaviour of laminates with drilled holes.