Virtual Fatigue Life Prediction of Cellulose Microfibrils Reinforced Polymer Composite

Abstract

Abstract Composites are the recent ever-growing trend in the materials field of engineering. They have numerous applications in aerospace and automobile which make composites an inevitable research area. Currently, the research flow pattern centres around making sustainable green composites with accessible and overabundance of assets to contribute towards eco-friendly surroundings and waste management. In this paper, an attempt is made to reinforce natural fibres in polymer composite instead of synthetic fibres which are mostly non-biodegradable. Composite specimens are made with chemically treated cellulose microfibrils as reinforcements and epoxy as a matrix. Fatigue analysis of specimens prepared is carried out using ANSYS. The number of samples is decided based on the Box Behnken design (BBD), a design of experiments (DOE) method. The influences of parameters such as NaOH %, fibre diameter and Wt. % of Fibre on composite’s fatigue behaviour are investigated using analysis of variance (ANOVA). Optimised values of the input parameters are found to be 18.08 NaOH %, 250 µm fibre diameter and 3.778 Wt. % of Fibre which yields 1.3 x 106 cycles.

Keywords

• Cracks and Cracking
• Fibre reinforcement
• Life cycle assessment/ life cycle analysis
• Response Surface Methodology
• Analysis of Variance