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Procedia Engineering 96 (2014) 70 – 74

Modelling of Mechanical and Mechatronic Systems MMaMS 2014

Simulation and evaluation of carbon/epoxy composite systems using

FEM and tensile test
Branislav Duleba a *, Ľudmila Dulebová a, Emil Spišák a
a
Technical University of Kosice, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, 74 Masiarska St., 040 01 Kosice, Slovakia

Abstract

Composites consisting of carbon fiber and epoxy resin matrix are modern material for wide range of application (automotive,
aeronautics, sport industry). In this paper several type of composite material based on bisphenol A epoxy resin and plain/twill
carbon cloth was prepared. Subsequently composite consisting from carbon cloth/epoxy resin and carbon nanotubes was prepared
to prove the improvement of mechanical properties. Second part of paper describes the possibility of simulation of composite part
using NX8 and Nastran solver. Results from real tensile test and simulation were then compared.
© 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
© 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
Peer-review under responsibility of organizing committee of the Modelling of Mechanical and Mechatronic Systems MMaMS
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
2014.
Peer-review under responsibility of organizing committee of the Modelling of Mechanical and Mechatronic Systems MMaMS 2014

Keywords: polymer comosites; carbon composites; epoxy matrix; simulation of composites; CNT

1. Composite materials

Composites have been a long-time acquaintance for the automotive industry. They offer great deal of weight
saving with respect to monolithic structural materials, but more importantly, if properly designed they represent the
ideal engineering material for the wide variety of tasks they can be tailored to perform. Carbon fibre (CF) has
become important filler in today’s high performance polymer composite solutions, and has seen applications in such
areas as sporting goods, structural components, and the automotive industry.
Composite materials (composites for short) are made simultaneously by two or more materials with vastly
different mechanical and / or chemical properties which remain separate and are clearly observable in macroscopic
or microscopic scale inside the finished part. There are two categories of materials involved: reinforce and filler. At

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +421-55-602-3549;

E-mail address: branislav.duleba@tuke.sk

1877-7058 © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of organizing committee of the Modelling of Mechanical and Mechatronic Systems MMaMS 2014
doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2014.12.099
 Branislav Duleba et al. / Procedia Engineering 96 (2014) 70 – 74 71

least one piece from each category must necessarily be present. Filler surrounds and supports the reinforcement to
maintain mutual relative position. Reinforcement is adding its special mechanical properties in order to improve the
mechanical properties of filler. Synergy produces mechanical properties unattainable by individual participating
materials and a wide range of fillers and reinforcement allows the designer to select the most appropriate product
mix [1].
Laminates are composite materials consisting of fillers and reinforcements in the form of fibers / fabrics. Fillers
are used as resins of different types depending on application and desired properties. The most famous of them are
polyester, vinyl ester, epoxy, phenol formaldehyde (PF), polyimide (PI), polyamide, polypropylene (PP), polyether
ether ketone (PEEK). They have different mechanical properties, different terms of use, thermal expansion and
resistance. As reinforcement fabrics are used weaves cloth, twill or satin (Fig. 1) or single-shift and bi-axial or mat
with binder (powder, emulsion). Also, also used are separate bundles of fibers called rowing, used for longitudinal
reinforcement parts and fabrication of pressure tanks. The fibers are mostly glass, carbon, aramid, and hybrid boron -
woven to various types in order to obtain special properties. [2]

Table 1. Comparison of mechanical properties of fibers [3]

Type of fiber Density Tensile strength Modulus Elogation
[ g/ cm] [ MPa] [GPa] [ %]
Glass 2,54 3450 73 3-4
Carbona) 1,78 – 1,81 3800 - 6530 230 - 400 1,78 – 1,81
Aramida) 1,44 3600 - 4100 131 -
a) The values depend on the type of fiber (standard, medium, high modulus)

Mutual arrangement of the warp and weave creates three basic types of bonds presented on Fig.1 and Fig.2 :
 plain weave is the most rigid and pliable to shape well when the source in the warp and weave are equally
strong and equally distant; strand of weaving always passes over and under each strand of the warp (the so-
called balanced plain weave)
 twill weave is created by weaving crosses at least two sources of warp and revert to the one or more sources
of warp, in another place, the weaving move right or left always to the nearest spring warp; fabric with a
twill weave is more flexible, but only in a soft surface arrangement of fibers,
 satin weave is an integral textile links, a source of warp is covered by four or more strands weave top and
one strand from the bottom, the surface of the fabric is smooth and shiny, with long pads in which the
fibers lie parallel to the surface. [3]

Fig.1 Types of fabrics Fig. 2 Types of fabrics from the side

a) plain, b) twill, c) satin

Synergism of composite materials is very important, because it leads to the development of new materials with
enhanced better quality. This behavior of the composites is based on the braking the spread of fracture crack at the
interface of the matrix and fibers. At this interface there is a diversion direction of propagation of cracks but also the
intense mutual friction between the matrix and fibers – shown on Fig. 3. The quality of this interface then has a
major impact on the final properties of the composite [2]. The interface between the fibers and the matrix is area of
microscopic dimensions, and is specific for each material system. Ideal interface should be infinitely thin, tight with
no defects. The real interface differs in complicated chemical and physical structure, which significantly affects the
properties of the composite as fracture toughness in the environment [4, 5].
Since the first observation of carbon nanotubes in 1991 by Iijima [6] and the awareness of their novel mechanical
and electrical properties [7 – 9], an extensive research in the field of CNT/polymer nanocomposites has started. The
introduction of carbon nanotubes as a structure element in nanocomposites should improve the material properties
and therefore a large variety of applications, such as devices in nanoelectronics, field emitters or reinforcing
72 Branislav Duleba et al. / Procedia Engineering 96 (2014) 70 – 74

materials are imaginable. However, due to their limited availability together with the high purchasing costs, only a
few of these applications have been realised yet.[10, 11]

Fig.3 Fracture crack at the interface of tested matrix and fibers

a) carbon-kevlar, b) plain carbon, c) twill carbon

2. Experimental part

This study presents mechanical properties of carbon composites made from bisphenol A epoxy resin (E) and
160 g/m2 plain (PC) weave carbon cloth and 220 g/m2 twill (TC) carbon cloth as a reference and three-composite
system that consists from carbon fiber reinforced epoxy matrix and 1% of multi-wall carbon nanotubes dispersed in
epoxy resin. Orientation of layers of prepared samples was 0º - 45º - 0º. Used hardener H507 was based on
cycloaliphatic polyamine with absence of nonylphenol. Samples were also tempered at 80 ºC (for 12hours) for
improvement of their thermal resistance. Mutual comparison of obtained tensile strength values are shown on Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 Mutual comparison of measured results of tensile strength

As it is shown, the presence of carbon nanotubes in carbon cloth/epoxy system improves its strength at one
directional tensile test. Also difference in strength between twill and plain weave of carbon cloth were observed.
Samples that were not exposed to elevated temperatures for quicker drying showed increased tensile strength due to
slow curing of composite samples. Samples gained greater toughness, which is also indicated by the breach of
samples at the interface of resin and matrix. The pulling out of fibers from epoxy matrix was observed, while at
baked samples brittle fracture observed.
 Branislav Duleba et al. / Procedia Engineering 96 (2014) 70 – 74 73

3. Simulation of composite part at NX8 with Nastran solver

The creation of composite material in the NX8 is possible by two different ways – application of layers of the
composite to volume model or to surface model. In this case, the basic model will be created as honeycomb
consisting of fibers and resin. Element type CQUAD4 was at size 0.625 mm at 2D mesh.
The material library of program does not contain carbon fibers and epoxide resins, which form the composite
material as a whole. For determining the material constants in NX8 for orthotropic material is necessary to define
three primary constants, namely: Young Modulus, Poisson Ratio and Shear modulus for each direction ( X,Y, Z).
Creation of the new composite is shown on Fig.5, Fig.6 and Fig.7. After definition of material, the simulation of
tensile test was performed. Results of simulation are listed in Tab.2.

Fig.5 Laminate modeler window

Fig.6 Ply Layup modeler

Fig.7 Laminate properties and Ply sketcher

74 Branislav Duleba et al. / Procedia Engineering 96 (2014) 70 – 74

Table 2. Simulation of tensile test results

Carbon cloth type Number of plies Resin σm [MPa] εm [%] Orientation of plies [°]
Carbon plain 160 3 Epoxy 160 709 1.0 0 – 45 - 0
Carbon twill 220 3 Epoxy 160 756 1.5 0 – 45 - 0

As the Table 2 shows, the values tensile strength obtained by simulation are higher than the values from real
experiment. This may be as a result of microscopic air bubbles in the samples, which reduced the strength of
composite. These bubbles can be removed by usage of stronger autoclave or by selecting other method of
preparation, for example Resin transfer molding, Same Qualified Resin Transfer Molding or Vacuum assisted RTM
(VARTM).

4. Conclusion

This paper describes the possibilities of use of carbon fiber composite in wide range of application. Carbon fiber
composites, particularly those with polymeric matrices, have become the dominant advanced composite material for
many industries due to their high strength and low density. Because the composite materials exhibit strong
anisotropy of mechanical properties, the simulations of loading have great importance for modern industry. Finite
element analysis has provided an implicit means of modelling polymer composites, such as thermoset chopped fibre
or woven fabric composites and laminates, thermoplastic–textile and dispersed chopped fibre composites that
interprets the stress–strain behaviour in local regions compared with typical volume fraction continuum models. Real
test showed, that the difference between strength measured values and values obtained by simulation is still
considerable. But at laboratory or mass production are these differences minimal.

Acknowledgements

Article is the result of the Projects implementation: University Science Park TECHNICOM for Innovation
Applications Supported by Knowledge Technology, ITMS: 26220220182, supported by the Research &
Development Operational Programme funded by the ERDF, project PIRSES-GA-2010-269177 and VEGA
1/0872/14.

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