Informatics Publishing Limited

J. V. Sai Prasanna Kumar ¹, M. Soroja Devi ², G. Raghava ³, A. Joseph Stanley ⁴

Affiliations
1 Department of Aeronautical Engineering, Tagore Engineering College, Chennai 600048, IN
2 Anna University, Chennai 600025, IN
3 Fatigue Testing Laboratory, Structural Engineering Research Centre (SERC), Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Chennai 600113, IN
4 Madras Institute of Technology, Anna University, Chennai 600044, IN

Abstract

In recent years, carbon nano tubes and their applications have been the prime focus of research in the field of nanotechnology. In this paper, the fatigue life prediction of multi walled carbon nano tubes (MWCNT) doped E-Glass/Epoxy laminates is presented. Two different doping ratios of MWCNT (0.2% and 0.4%) are considered to demonstrate the improvement in fatigue life of the composite laminate. The fatigue tests are undertaken on an Instron 8802 universal testing machine using a uni-directional (UD) Glass/Epoxy laminate specimen fabricated as per the ASTM standard - ASTM D 3039. An artificial neural network (ANN) based approach with a back propagation algorithm is used to predict the fatigue life cycles. The proposed neural network is trained using the fatigue test data set. The predicted fatigue results from the ANN are in good agreement with the experimental results. The proposed approach can be utilised to predict the fatigue life of Glass/Epoxy laminates for varied MWCNT doping ratios.

Keywords

Glass/Epoxy Laminate, Fatigue Life, Multi Walled Carbon Nano Tubes, Fatigue Test, Neural Networks.

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K. Kalaichelvan ¹, R. Sivaramakrishnan ¹, K. Murugaraj ¹, A. Joseph Stanley ¹

Affiliations
1 MIT Campus, Anna University, Chromepet, Chennai - 44, IN

Abstract

This paper focuses on formability value of aluminium alloy sheet in the stretch forming operation. The formability of materials can be varied with respect to different heat treatment processes. Aluminium alloy sheets were prepared for the required size under cold rolled, polymer quenched and annealed conditions. A hemispherical punch and ring die were designed and fabricated for performing the stretch forming operations. The surface of each aluminium alloy sheet was imprinted with circular grid pattern of diameter 5 mm and these sheets were stretch formed by using the punch and die. The change in grid pattern after deformation were measured and analysed for major and minor strain values. From these values a formability limit diagram was constructed for each heat treatment conditions. From the forming limit diagram it is found that the annealed and polymer quenched aluminium alloy sheets have good formability. For increasing the formability value of the Aluminium alloy sheets, the stretch forming of the annealed specimen was repeated by applying the proper lubricant (SAE 40) in between the work and punch surface. It is found 2% increase in major strain in lubricating condition. The tensile strength of the sheet metal is found in UTM with constant cross head speed. The tensile strength of polymer quenched aluminium alloy sheet is placed very close to the cold rolled one. Hence polymer quenched aluminium sheets are recommended for making automobile components.

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