An Experimental Study on "Drilling of Glass Fibre Reinforced (GFRP) Filled Epoxy Composite Material"

The present work describes the drilling (machining) of GFRP composites with the help of Step drill of three sets, with three different speeds. Further work has been carried out by immersion of GFRP composites in sea water for 8 hrs, 16 hrs and 24 hrs duration and performed drilling operation. Results revealed that 8-4 mm step drill showed better machining characteristic than the other two 12-8 mm and 10-6 mm step drills. GFRP composites, with ZnS filler material soaked in sea water for 16 hrs duration had better machining capability. The ZnS Filled GFRP composites had better performance than TiO2 filled GFRP Composites. The mechanical performance of a composite material is decisively controlled by the state of fiber-matrix interface. Its properties influence the integrity of composite behavior because of its role in transferring stress between the fiber and the matrix. The factors affecting the interface are too complex to be precisely concluded. Also, tests have been performed to study the delamination occurred during drilling on different material compositions of Glass Fibre , Epoxy & Fillers such as TiO2 & ZnS in different proportions. Samples of several Glass-Epoxy composites were manufactured using the traditional hand layup method where the stacking of the plies were alternate and the weight fraction of fiber and matrix was kept at 40-60%.Specimens were cut according to the ASTM (1989) standards. Specimens were prepared of Glass Fibre, Epoxy & fillers (TiO2 & ZnS) in different compositions like 60%-40%, 59%-40%-1%, 58%-40%-2%, 57%-40%-3%.The specimens were tested for their strength & properties. The test like Tensile test, three point Bending test & Charpy test are performed on each of the composition. Also Experimental studies have been carried out to study the effects of thermal ageing, sea water. Finally step drilling with different size is carried out on each specimens. The present work also describes the development and mechanical characterization of new polymer composites consisting of glass fiber reinforcement, epoxy resin and filler materials such as TiO2 and ZnS. The newly developed composites are characterized for their mechanical properties. Experiments like tensile test, three point bending and impact test were conducted to find the significant influence of filler material on mechanical characteristics of GFRP composites.