Effect of breather type and vacuum pressure on the manufacturing of an unmanned aerial vehicle fuselage using vacuum bagging method

Abstract

Composite materials are widely used in aerospace for example to make an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) airframe. Composite has advantages as an unmanned aerial vehicle airframe material, such as the ratio of strength and weight is quite high, powerful, lightweight, the process is quite simple and resistant to corrosion. The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of breather type and vacuum pressure with respect to mechanical properties of composite material for an UAV fuselage manufacturing using vacuum bagging method. Composite material was made from 100 gr/m2 woven fiberglass and epoxy matrix eposchon A and hardener EPH 555. The UAV fuselage was manufactured using vacuum bagging method with variation of vacuum pressure which are −381 mmHG, −508 mmHg, −635 mmHg and the type of breather which are BR180, Gauz, combination of BR180 and gauze. The fiberglass and epoxy was laminated on a mould by hand lay-up method then covered with plastic bag. Vacuum pump applied to this plastic bag and held around six hours until the composite layer dried. The mechanical properties of the unmanned aerial vehicle was obtained by tensile and flexural test. The highest tensile strength and modulus elasticity obtained with BR180 breather and the pressure of −635 mmHG. Using this parameters experiment yield 204.019 MPa of tensile strength and the modulus elasticity of 2 183.870 MPa. The highest flexural strength and modulus elasticity result of flexural test obtained 70.964 MPa of flexural strength and 2,919.479 MPa of modulus elasticity.