CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION
People have been making composites for many thousands of years. One early example is
the mud bricks analogy.Mud can be dried out into a brick shape to give a building material. It is
strong if you try to squash it as it has good compressive strength. However, it breaks quite easily
if you try to bend it as it has poor tensile strength. Straw seems very strong if you try to stretch it,
but you can crumple it up easily. By mixing mud and straw together it is possible to make bricks
that are resistant to both squeezing and tearing and make excellent building blocks.
Another ancient composite is concrete. Concrete is a mix of aggregate which are small
stones or gravel, cement and sand. It has good compressive strength if it resists squashing. In
more recent times it has been found that adding metal rods or wires to the concrete can increase
its tensile or bending strength. Concrete containing such rods or wires is called reinforced
concrete.
There are a few examples of modern composite material. The first modern composite
material was fibreglass. It is still widely used today for boat hulls, sports equipment, building
panels and many car bodies. The matrix is a plastic and the reinforcement is glass that has been
made into fine threads and often woven into a sort of cloth. The glass is very strong on its own
but brittle and it will break if bent sharply. The plastic matrix holds the glass fibres together and
also protects them from damage by sharing out the forces acting on them.
Some advanced composites are now made using carbon fibres instead of glass. These
materials are lighter and stronger than fibreglass but more expensive to produce. They are used
in aircraft structures and expensive sports equipment such as golf clubs. Carbon nanotubes have
also been used successfully to make new composites. These are even lighter and stronger than
composites made with ordinary carbon fibres but they are still extremely expensive. They do,
however, offer possibilities for making lighter cars and aircraft which will useless fuel than the
heavier vehicles we have now.

For our Mechanics of Materials subject, we are required to design and fabricate a
composite plate by using any materials comprising of more than 8 plies (8 layers) with more
than 2 types of materials [any materials, ranging from wood piece, natural fibers, recycle
materials, etc.]. The thickness of each ply [each layer] is not more than 0.25 mm and composite
plate should not be larger than 2 mm. We are also required to prepare 3 testing specimens for this
project.
Each testing specimen is bounded by the following requirements:Maximum thickness

= 2 mm

Wide

= 20 mm

Maximum length

= 200 mm

Minimum modulus

= 10 GPa

Maximum ply thickness = 0.25 mm

OBJECTIVES
The objectives why we were going out to doing this project are :
To conduct a project by designing and fabricating the composite material plates.
To determine the strength and modulus of the composite material plates.
To observe the behavior of the composite material plates when testing.

CHAPTER 2
THEORY
2.1 STRESS TERM
Uniaxial stress is expressed by

Where,
F is the force [N] acting on an area A [m2]. The area can be the undeformed area or the
deformed area, depending on whether engineering stress or true stress is of interest.
Compressive stress (or compression) is the stress state caused by an applied load that acts
to reduce the length of the material (compression member) along the axis of the applied load, it is
in other words a stress state that causes a squeezing of the material. A simple case of
compression is the uniaxial compression induced by the action of opposite, pushing forces.
Compressive strength for materials is generally higher than their tensile strength. However,
structures loaded in compression are subject to additional failure modes, such as buckling, that
are dependent on the member's geometry.
Tensile stress is the stress state caused by an applied load that tends to elongate the
material along the axis of the applied load, in other words the stress caused by pulling the
material. The strength of structures of equal cross sectional area loaded in tension is independent
of shape of the cross section. Materials loaded in tension are susceptible to stress

concentrations such as material defects or abrupt changes in geometry. However, materials

exhibiting ductile behavior (most metals for example) can tolerate some defects while brittle
materials (such as ceramics) can fail well below their ultimate material strength.
Shear stress is the stress state caused by the combined energy of a pair of opposing forces
acting along parallel lines of action through the material, in other words the stress caused by
faces of the material sliding relative to one another. An example is cutting paper with scissors or
stresses due to torsional loading.

2.2 STRAIN (DEFORMATION)

Deformation of the material is the change in geometry created when stress is applied (as a
result of applied forces, gravitational fields, accelerations, thermal expansion, etc.). Deformation
is expressed by the displacement field of the material.
Strain or reduced deformation is a mathematical term that expresses the trend of the
deformation change among the material field. Strain is the deformation per unit length. In the
case of uniaxial loading the displacements of a specimen (for example a bar element)lead to a
calculation of strain expressed as the quotient of the displacement and the original length of the
specimen. For 3D displacement fields it is expressed as derivatives of displacement functions in
terms of a second order tensor (with 6 independent elements).
Deflection is a term to describe the magnitude to which a structural element is displaced
when subject to an applied load.

2.3

STRESS STRAIN RELATIONSHIP

For linearly elastic materials, Hooke's Law relates the stress of a body to the strain in the
elastic range. Through experiments, it can be shown that most materials act like springs in that
the force is proportional to the displacement (F = k). However, unlike a spring, a bar has a
cross-sectional area that effects the displacement. Therefore, it is simpler to relate the stress
(F/A) to the strain (/L). This gives the relationship,

where E is the material property that represents the stiffness of the material (called Young's
Modulus). Simply stated, the stress is directly proportional to the strain. Young's modulus is
determined through experiments and are commonly listed in engineering handbooks.This stressstrain relationship is called Hooke's Law.

2.4

STRESS STRAIN CURVE

The previous paragraphs developed the basic linear elastic stress-strain relationship
assuming there was no plastic deformation. However, if most materials are strained enough, they
will permanently deform. When a material deforms, the stress-strain relationship is no longer
linear.
It is common to plot the stress as a function of the strain. This curve is called the 'StressStrain Curve'. Each material has a unique curve, but for most materials, the initial curve is a
straight line reflecting the linear relationship between the stress and strain. This is called the
'Elastic' range. Hooke's Law only applies in this range.

If the material is stressed past its elastic limit, the material will be permanently deformed
and plastic deformation will occur. This means the material has yielded and will stretch easily
with little additional load. Next, the material cross-section will become smaller which is called
"necking".
Since the cross-sectional area is reducing, the effective, or true stress goes up. However,
many times the stress calculations will use the original cross sectional area (called the nominal
area) and this makes the stress-strain curve appear to go down.
While most material have an elastic range, some do not. Rubber has no linear range. Most
glasses at room temperature have only an elastic range. Some examples of basic stress-strain
curves are given at the left.

2.5 DESIGN THEORY.

Ultimate strength is an attribute related to a material, rather than just a specific specimen
made of the material, and as such it is quoted as the force per unit of cross section area
(N/m). The ultimate strength is the maximum stress that a material can withstand before it
breaks or weakens. For example, the ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of AISI 1018 Steel is
440 MN/m. In general, the SI unit of stress is the pascal, where 1 Pa = 1 N/m.

Design stresses that have been determined from the ultimate or yield point values of the
materials give safe and reliable results only for the case of static loading. Many machine parts
fail when subjected to a non-steady and continuously varying loads even though the
developed stresses are below the yield point. Such failures are called fatigue failure. The
failure is by a fracture that appears to be brittle with little or no visible evidence of yielding.
However, when the stress is kept below "fatigue stress" or "endurance limit stress", the part
will endure indefinitely. A purely reversing or cyclic stress is one that alternates between
equal positive and negative peak stresses during each cycle of operation. In a purely cyclic
stress, the average stress is zero. When a part is subjected to a cyclic stress, also known as

stress range (Sr), it has been observed that the failure of the part occurs after a number of
stress reversals (N) even if the magnitude of the stress range is below the materials yield
strength. Generally, higher the range stress, the fewer the number of reversals needed for
failure.

2.6

FAILURE THEORY

There are four important failure theories: maximum shear stress theory, maximum normal
stress theory, maximum strain energy theory, and maximum distortion energy theory. Out of
these four theories of failure, the maximum normal stress theory is only applicable for brittle
materials, and the remaining three theories are applicable for ductile materials. Of the latter
three, the distortion energy theory provides most accurate results in majority of the stress
conditions. The strain energy theory needs the value of Poissons ratio of the part material, which
is often not readily available. The maximum shear stress theory is conservative. For simple
unidirectional normal stresses all theories are equivalent, which means all theories will give the
same result.

Maximum Shear stress Theory- This theory postulates that failure will occur if the
magnitude of the maximum shear stress in the part exceeds the shear strength of the
material determined from uniaxial testing.

Maximum normal stress theory - This theory postulates that failure will occur if the
maximum normal stress in the part exceeds the ultimate tensile stress of the material as
determined from uniaxial testing. This theory deals with brittle materials only. The
maximum tensile stress should be less than or equal to ultimate tensile stress divided by
factor of safety. The magnitude of the maximum compressive stress should be less than
ultimate compressive stress divided by factor of safety.

Maximum strain energy theory - This theory postulates that failure will occur when the
strain energy per unit volume due to the applied stresses in a part equals the strain energy
per unit volume at the yield point in uniaxial testing.

2.7 UNITS AND VALUES

Young's modulus is equal to elastic stress/strain. Strain has no units to the units
are the same as stress: N/m2, or Pascals (1 Pa = 1N/m2 ; 1 GPa = 1000 N/mm2

Specific stiffness (more properly called specific modulus) is Young's

modulus/density - it is mostly used for comparing materials so the units are not
important.

CHAPTER 3
PROBLEM STATEMENT
A tensile test, also known as a tension test, tests a material's strength. It's a mechanical
test where a pulling force is applied to a material from both sides until the sample changes its
shape or breaks. It's is a common and important test that provides a variety of information about
the material being tested, including the elongation, yield point , tensile strength, and ultimate
strength of the material.

The tensile strength of a sample of material describes how it reacts when tension is
applied to it. By measuring the changes, engineers can determine a variety of things about the
material, which is helpful in determining whether it is a suitable choice for the application they
have in mind. In addition to whether a material changes in shape, a tensile test will also show a
material's "ultimate strength," the maximum tensile load that the material can stand. It also
uncovers the material's "yield point," which is the amount of tension that causes the sample to
break or fail.

Testing systems use a number of different units of measurement. The International

System of Units, or SI, recommends the use of either Pascals (Pa) or Newtons per square meter
(N/m2) for describing tensile strength.
NOTE : In the United States, many engineers measure tensile strength in kilo-pound per square
inch (KSI).

Tensile strength specifies the point when a material goes from elastic to plastic
deformation. Once a material is in plastic deformation, it can never recover its original
shape. However, this can happen in either tension or compression. When you take a class on
statics structures, you'll find that basic structures like bridge trusses have elements that are under
both tension and compression.

If an engineer wanted to design a bridge to span a river, it would be absurd to consider

building it out of rubber. Knowing that this is because something about the demands that will be
put on the bridge and knowing that these materials do not satisfy the requirements. After
considering other materials, perhaps titanium or high tech aluminium alloys, the chosen may
discount them on the grounds of cost even if they do have suitable mechanical properties to make
a good bridge.
Eventually bridge can be design on steel. but which one? There are thousands to choose
from. Which has the best properties at an affordable price? The cost effectiveness of any
material is a matter not to be dealt with here but we must ask which steel has the most
appropriate physical properties. In order to answer this question, we must conduct a tests on
different materials

and compare the results when samples of the materials are tested to

destruction.

Nowdays, we can see that the building structure itself have some damage over the time
had arisen. This is may cause by the load that had been acted in that building. Hence, the task on
tensile test on composite materials contribute us to research more on this problem. On making
this project, we should follow and obtain a result with the following terms

The composite must be high in young modulus of elasticity (E)

The composite must be high in strength

The composite must be light in weight

The cost of composite is effective versus strength

The commercial value, target user and environmental friendly.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Generally, composite materials are materials made from two or more constituent
materials with significantly different physical or chemical properties, that when combined,
produce a material with characteristics different from the individual components. The
individual components remain separate and distinct within the finished structure. The new
material may be preferred for many reasons: common examples include materials which are
stronger, lighter or less expensive when compared to traditional materials.

Composite materials are generally used for buildings, bridges and structures such as
boat hulls, swimming pool panels, race car bodies, shower stalls, bathtubs, storage tanks,
imitation granite and cultured marble sinks and counter tops. The most advanced examples
perform routinely on spacecraft in demanding environments.
To aid in predicting and preventing failures, composites are tested before and after
construction. Pre-construction testing may use finite element analysis (FEA) for ply-by-ply
analysis of curved surfaces and predicting wrinkling, crimping and dimpling of composites.
Materials may be tested after construction through several nondestructive methods including
ultrasonic, thermography, stereography and X-ray radiography.
Shock, impact, or repeated cyclic stresses can cause the laminate to separate at the
interface between two layers, a condition known as delamination. Individual fibres can
separate from the matrix. For example, fibre pull-out.
Composites can fail on the microscopic or macroscopic scale. Compression failures
can occur at both the macro scale or at each individual reinforcing fibre in compression
buckling. Tension failures can be net section failures of the part or degradation of the
composite at a microscopic scale where one or more of the layers in the composite fail in
tension of the matrix or failure of the bond between the matrix and fibres.
Some composites are brittle and have little reserve strength beyond the initial onset of
failure while others may have large deformations and have reserve energy absorbing capacity
past the onset of damage. The variations in fibers and matrices that are available and the
mixtures that can be made with blends leave a very broad range of properties that can be
designed into a composite structure. Compared to metals, composites have relatively poor
bearing strength.

CHAPTER 4
METHODOLOGY
Sample
i.

Aluminium (Can drink)

ii.

PVC (recyclable item : banner used from the election)

iii.

Zinc ( Biscuit Tin )

iv.

HARDEX 5 Minute Metal Epoxy

Properties of Each Materials

Aluminium

Aluminium (or aluminum) is a chemical element in the boron group with symbol Al and
atomic number 13. It is a silvery white, soft, ductile metal. Aluminium is the third most abundant
element (after oxygen and silicon), and the most abundant metal, in the Earth's crust. It makes up
about 8% by weight of the Earth's solid surface.
Aluminium metal is so chemically reactive that native specimens are rare and limited to
extreme reducing environments. Instead, it is found combined in over 270 different minerals.The
chief ore of aluminium is bauxite.
Aluminium is remarkable for the metal's low density and for its ability to resist corrosion
due to the phenomenon of passivation. Structural components made from aluminium and its
alloys are vital to the aerospace industry and are important in other areas of transportation and
structural materials. The most useful compounds of aluminium, at least on a weight basis, are the
oxides and sulfates.

On our project, we used aluminium foil to be half from our layer in the specimen. Foil is
a very thin sheet of rolled aluminium supplied in it is pure form or in a variety of alloys and
tempers which give a wide choice of tensile properties. Aluminium is very malleable and can be
deformed considerably without losing its barrier integrity. Thin foil are fragile and are
sometimes laminated to other materials such as plastics or paper to make them more useful.
Aluminium foil supplanted tin foil in the middle 20th century.Aluminium foil is also used
for barbecuing more delicate foods, such as mushrooms and vegetables; food is wrapped in foil,
then placed on the grill, preventing loss of moisture that may result in a less appealing texture.

Physical properties

Phase

Melting point

solid

933.47 K1220.58 F 660.32 C,

,

Boiling point

4566 F 2519 C, 2792 K,

Young's modulus 70 GPa

Shear modulus

26 GPa

Bulk modulus

76 GPa

Table 1 : Properties of Aluminium

PVC ( Polyvinyl Chloride )

PVC, PE PP and Ps are general purpose plastics. The features of the particular plastic are
determined by its chemical composition and type of molecular structure ( molecular formation :
crystalline / amorphous structure ).
PVC has an amorphous structure with polar chlorine atoms in the molecular structure .
Having chlorine atoms and amorphous molecular structure are inseperably related. Although
plastics seem very similar in the context of daily use, PVC has completely different features in
terms of performance and functions compared with olefin plastics which have only carbon and
hydrogen atoms in their molecular structures.

PVC
Physical properties

Phase

Melting point

solid

100260 C,

Boiling point

Young's modulus 2.9 GPa

Shear modulus

1.0 GPa

Bulk modulus

4.7 GPa

Zinc

Zinc is a metallic chemical element, it has the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the
first element of group 12 of the periodic table. Zinc is, in some respects, chemically similar to
magnesium, because its ion is of similar size and its only common oxidation state is +2.
Zinc is the 24th most abundant element in the Earth's crust and has five stable isotopes.
Various isolated examples of the use of impure zinc in ancient times have been discovered. Zinc
ores were used to make the zinccopper alloy brass many centuries prior to the discovery of zinc
as a separate element.
Many applications that used zinc in worldwide. The major applications of zinc include
galvanizing, alloys, brass and bronze, and miscellaneous. The metal is most commonly used as
an anti-corrosion agent. Galvanization, which is the coating of iron or steel to protect the metals
against corrosion, is the most familiar form of using zinc in this way.
Zinc is more reactive than iron or steel and thus will attract almost all local oxidation
until it completely corrodes away. A protective surface layer of oxide and carbonate forms as the
zinc corrodes. This protection lasts even after the zinc layer is scratched but degrades through
time as the zinc corrodes away.
The zinc is applied electrochemically or as molten zinc by hot-dip galvanizing or
spraying. Galvanization is used on chain-link fencing, guard rails, suspension bridges, light
posts, metal roofs, heat exchangers, and car bodies.
For the application used in our project, we get the material (zinc) from a biscuit tin. The
biscuit tin that we used have about 30cm in height, 20cm length and 15cm wide. We then cut the
biscuit tin with the size according to the instruction of the project. We were using the cutter that
appropriate the work, this will help us to get an approximate dimension which satisfy the
measurement given for this project and yet simplify our further work.

Properties

Phase

solid

Melting point

692.68 K787.15 F 419.53 C,

Boiling point

1665 F 907 C, 1180 K,

Young's modulus 108 GPa

Shear modulus

43 GPa

Bulk modulus

70 GPa

HARDEX 5 Minute Metal Epoxy

Cures and joins together by a chemical reaction between the resin and the hardener. It offer good
bonding strength and will harden in approximate 5 minutes, archieve full strength after 8 hours.
It is versatile, shock resistant and tolerant to fuel and solvent, ideal for repairing metal, wood,
concrete ceramic and other, it can cure to a tough, steel-filled material that can be drilled, tapped
and sanded.

Material Cost
All of our material is a waste product which did not cost us to purchase the material in any
department store. We collect the material from disposal place. However, we bought glue to
combine the material at the Hardware store which cost us RM10.00. The HARDEX 5 Minute
Metal Epoxy is strongly recommended to us by the store owner, he stated that the glue can
combine the material and it will cause a strong bonding between the combination.

Overall

HARDEX 5 Minute Metal Epoxy

Zinc

PVC

Aluminium

Size
Thickness : 2mm
Wide

: 20mm

Length

: 200mm

TESTING

3 days before testing day, we try to finish our sample by combining all of them. We have
work hard to make the sample of our specimen has small thickness. We have made 3 same
samples of that specimens. First we of all we measure all of our materials follow by the standard
size of the project which are 20mm width and 200mm length using a ruler. We make a straight
line using a pencil. Then, we cut all of them using a scissors. Next, we have combining all of
them using a glue.

After we have combine all of the plies from the different materials, we have compressed all
of 3 same specimens by more than 24 hours. The function why we compressed the specimen is to
make sure that all of the materials plies combine each other strongly. Moreover, this compression
also is to make sure that there were no more air space between each of the material.

During the testing day in laboratory at FKAAS,the modulus of elasticity that our group
have obtained is 4611.00N

CHAPTER 5
DATA ANALYSIS

Our Group Result

STRESS AND STRAIN GRAPH

From the graph, we can see the stress strain curve is straight line from 0 Mpa to 70 Mpa
which is the proportional limit. Within this limit,the stress is directly proportional to strain. The
constant of proportionality k is called the Modulus of elasticity of Elasticity E or Youngs
Modulus.
Any increase in stress beyond the yield point will cause the material to be deformed
permanently. Also in this so-called yielding region, the deformation will be relatively large for
small, almost negligible increases in the stress. This process, characterized by a near-zero slope
to the stress-strain curve, is often referred to as perfect plasticity. By refering to the graph above,
the yielding point is on 105 Mpa to 115 Mpa.

MAXIMUM CAPACITY OF THE PLATE

The peak load of the composite plate tested is at 7629.00N. The area of the material tested is
26

=
= 293.42Mpa

STIFFNESS OF THE PLATE

The stiffness, k, of a body is a measure of the resistance offered by an elastic body to
deformation. For an elastic body with a single degree of freedom (for example, stretching or
compression of a rod), the stiffness is defined as:

where,
F = the force applied on the body
= the displacement produced by the force along the same degree of freedom (for instance, the
change in length of a stretched spring)
The complementary concept is flexibility or pliability. The more flexible an object is, the less
stiff it is.

K=
= 6.54 105 N/m

COMPARISION THE RESULT/DATA WITH ANOTHER GROUP