Temperature Effects on Failure of Rotating Beam of Hybrid Composite

Abstract

Fiber-reinforced polymer materials are widely used in the design and manufacture of rotating structures like robot arms, wind turbine blades and helicopter blades. This is due to their high specific strength and stiffness, lightweight and ease to manufacture the complex parts of structures such as airfoils. In the present study, thermal effects on the failure of a rotating hybrid beam are studied. The beam is modeled as a composite laminate with the top and bottom layers made of carbon fiber-reinforced plastic and the middle layer glass fiber-reinforced plastic. The cost of carbon fiber is about ten times more than glass fiber and the hybrid arrangement of fiber reinforcements leads to a cost-effective design. Four different stacking sequences are investigated, namely [0/30/0]S, [0/45/0]S, [0/60/0]S and [0/0/0]S. To determine the failure limits of non-hybrid and hybrid rotating beams under thermal loads, Tsai–Wu failure criterion is implemented. Numerical results indicate that the failure index increases with increasing angular speed and temperature as expected. As the thicknesses of the carbon fiber layers increase, the failure index decreases which can lead to a longer service life. By using the minimum amount of the more expensive carbon fibers in the outer layers and less expensive glass fibers in the middle layer, the cost of the hybrid beam can be reduced and a cost-effective beam design under thermal loading can be achieved.