Variation of Mesh Peel Ply and Gelcoat on Mechanical Properties of Carbon Twill-Vinyl Ester Composites Using Vacuum Assisted Resin Infusion Manufacturing Method

Abstract

This study discussed the modifications made to the Vacuum Assisted Resin Infusion (VARI) method to make composites. Composites made using the standard VARI method sometimes have values that have not reached the desired standard. In addition, there was a modification to add Gelcoat and mesh peel ply from previous studies that used e-glass fiber and epoxy resin, which positively affected the mechanical properties of the composite. In this study, carbon twill material was used, which is relatively better in mechanical properties than e-glass fiber and vinyl ester resin with different viscosity from epoxy. The finite element simulation was also performed to compare the load versus displacement graph with the testing. The tensile test results of the VARI with double mesh peel ply increased by 1.61%, while VARI with the addition of gelcoat increased 4.34% from the composite with the standard method of 527.62 MPa. The tensile test results of the VARI with double mesh peel ply decreased 17.20%, while the VARI with the addition of gelcoat decreased 30.24% from the composite with the standard method of 29.97 MPa.