Effect of fiber orientation on vibration response of glass epoxy composite beam

Abstract

Composite materials constitute a considerable portion of today’s most of the applications like space, missiles, submarines, and sports equipment due to their properties such as high strength and stiffness to weight ratios, high durability, fatigue life, and high corrosion resistance. The performance of composite materials is generally based on the mechanical and dynamic characteristics such as tensile, compression, flexural, impact, and free vibration properties. It is therefore essential to establish material performance under various conditions. In this study, the effect of fiber orientation on vibration response of composite beam examined with different boundary conditions. Composite beam specimens were fabricated using glass fiber and epoxy resin with different fiber angle orientations. Dynamic properties such as natural frequency and damping factor were experimentally determined by experimental modal analysis. The accelerometer is mounted on the specimen, and by using the National Instruments data acquisition system NI-DAQ the signals were acquired and the results were plotted. Graphs are obtained in both the time domain and frequency domain. With the help of time-domain graph, damping ratios were calculated using the logarithmic decrement method and from frequency domain graph natural frequencies were obtained. Numerical analysis was carried out in ANSYS with different boundary conditions. The effect of fiber angle orientation on natural frequency and damping factor was studied. It is found that as fiber orientation increases from 0° to 90° natural frequency decreases but damping ratio increases.