Using Taguchi approach for optimizing mechanical properties of hybrid laminates nanocomposite

Abstract

In current study, two kinds of nano-composites were prepared and the effect of input parameters on impact properties of desired hybrid nano-composites was investigated. Carbon fiber orientation, nano-clay content, and carbon nano-tube content were selected as input parameters in one set and carbon fiber orientation, nano-clay content, and nano-SiO2 content were the input parameters of the other set of prepared nano-composites. Taguchi design was used for design of experiments and analyzing results. The obtained results show that the maximum value of impact strength for both of nano-composites occurred in the design level 2 with 0 degree of fiber orientation, 1.5 wt% of nano-clay, 1 wt% of nano-SiO2, and 1 wt% of carbon nano-tube and the magnitude of impact strength for nano-clay/carbon nano-tube and nano-clay/nano-SiO2 was 6.6 kJ/m2 and 6.3 kJ/m2, respectively. From analysis of variance, it was clear that all of the input variables had reverse effect on impact response except the nano-clay. The carbon fiber orientation had the greatest effect and the effect of carbon nano-tube was higher than nano-SiO2 according to its probability value. Also mechanical plots show that, the optimum level of input variables of hybrid nano-composites reached higher values of impact strength compared with pure epoxy and binary nano-composites.