Fabrication and characterization of e-glass composites cylindrical tubes using three different methods

Abstract

The mechanical properties of the composites might have variations due to their manufacturing methods. In this paper, the glass fiber reinforced epoxy composite tubes are fabricated by using three different methods which are hands lay-up, vacuum bagging, and compression molding. The tensile properties such as the tensile strength, Young modulus, and the tensile response of thermal spiking were determined by carrying out the tensile testing. The test was conducted according to ASTM D3039 standard. The specimens were undergone heat treatment with 50°C, 100°C, and 150°C before undergoing the test. All the results were compared with the untreated specimen at room temperature. The untreated compression molding fabricated composite has obtained the highest tensile strength with a value of 273.518 MPa. The tensile strength of all types of specimens starts to reduce when the treatment temperature reaches to 150°C. The performance in terms of the specimen’s tensile properties shows that the compression molding method is the best approach.