Effect of nanoparticles loading on free vibration response of epoxy and filament winding basalt/epoxy and E-glass/epoxy composite tubes: experimental, analytical and numerical investigations

Abstract

In recent times, basalt fiber reinforced polymer (BFRP) nanocomposites is being increasingly used in aerospace applications such as wing and fuselage structures of the aircraft and outer casings of the rocket, automobile engine drive shafts and fuel tanks in the oil and gas industries, which fills the gap between carbon and E-glass fiber reinforced polymer nanocomposites. These structures are subjected to vibrations and exposed to different temperatures in various places during their service life. However, the comparison of vibration response of silica particles reinforced basalt/epoxy and glass/epoxy nanocomposite tubes in all three approaches, namely, experimental, analytical and numerical (Finite Element Modeling), have not found elsewhere. Analytical and numerical approaches minimize time, manpower and cost. Therefore, investigating the vibration response of different weight contents of these FRP nanocomposite tubes is novel and essential. Hence, in this study, the vibration response of silica nanoparticles reinforced epoxy, basalt/epoxy and E-glass/epoxy composites with different weight contents (0, 0.5, 1 and 1.5%) were investigated. The vibration tests were performed at three different boundary conditions such as cantilever, simply supported and fixed-fixed. The first three modes of vibration were considered for analysis. Besides, the heat deflection temperature and the hardness properties were also studied. The results indicate that the natural frequencies were higher for the fixed-fixed case and the damping parameters were higher for the simply supported case. Vibration properties, heat deflection temperature and hardness values were found to be higher in fiber-reinforced nanocomposites than those of epoxy nanocomposites. The data presented in this study will be useful to generate the numerical models for the ground vibration test (GVT).