THEORETICAL DETERMINATION OF THE ELASTIC CONSTANTS OF A SISAL/POLYESTER LAMINA COMPOSITE

Mechanical Engineering

To know the elastic characteristics of a Sisal / Polyester laminate, it is important to determine which of the lamina that represent the basic element. The rule of mixture and the models of Halphin-Tsai and Tsai-Hahn are used to obtain the variations of the elastic constants of the lamina as a function of the quantity of fibers in the composite. According to the results obtained, the value of the longitudinal Young’s modulus of the Sisal / Polyester increases with the quantity of fibers in the latter, unlike those of the other elastic constants. For the transverse Young’s modulus and the minor Poisson's ratio of the studied lamina, the curves given by the rule of mixture are between those determined by the models of Halphin-Tsai and Tsai-Hahn. The curves also show a small value of the transverse Young’s modulus and the in-plane shear modulus, and a minor Poisson's ratio very sensitive to the amount of fibers in the lamina, especially for a fiber mass fraction of less than 40%.

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