EAS 3922 AEROSPACE LABORATORY II

(MATERIALS & STRUCTURES)

SEMESTER I 2016/2017

COMPOSITE FABRICATION USING HAND

LAY-UP PROCESS
DATE OF EXPERIMENT: 13/10/2016 & 20/10/2016

NAME

: MUHAMMAD AKMAL AIMAN BIN ALIAS

MATRIC NUM.

: 181051

LECTURER

: DR. MOHAMAD RIDZWAN ISHAK

DEMONSTRATOR : NUR SOFEANA ZULAIKA BT. MOHD NOR

TECHNICIAN

: DR. MOHAMAD RIDZWAN

1. OBJECTIVES
1. To understand the components of a composite material.
2. To fabricate a rectangular composite sample through hand lay-up process.
2. INTRODUCTION
Briefly, a theoretical perspective on composite material was discussed before performing
this experiments of EAS3922 Aerospace Laboratory 2. Composite material can be
defined as a mixture or composition of two or more materials which are chemically and
physically distinct phases in the final product material at a microscopic level. In simple
words, difference properties of materials in order to form a better quality of material. It
was first introduced in 1950s. Composite material includes three phases which are
matrix phase, reinforcement phase and inter-phase. Composite material came in different
forms such as polymer, ceramic, glass or metal. Fig. 1 shows a composite material of
glass fibre or sometimes called glass fibre having the thickness of 200gsm is used in this
vary experiment, as the glass fibre composite has a good characteristic which made them
the fastest growing and the most widely used composite material. Furthermore, the
prominent advantages of glass fibre are that they are high in strength and modulus. These
relatively mechanical properties are important in aerospace materials, because it is a
good fatigue resistance and high damage tolerance. Moreover, they have a great ability to
absorb vibration at a certain maximum level of stress.

Fig. 1: Sample of Glass Fibre

Practically, in order to understand the components of the composite material, a

rectangular-shaped of composite material is fabricated with certain sizes relative to the
assigned angles. Hence, the fabricating process is done using the hand lay-up method,
which basically, by placing the glass reinforcing mat or woven roving on top of a glass
acting as the mould. Followed by applying a mixed epoxy on the surface of the glass
fibre, layer by layer. Then, wait for the curing time for at least 48 hours, which is two
days in ambient temperature. Thus, it is the simplest method offering low-cost tooling
and simple processing. Besides that, the mixed epoxy is a mixture of resin with hardener,
making a solid and tough connection. Thoroughly, the hand lay-up process is illustrated
in Fig. 2, which is mostly used in wide variety of production application and is
particularly well-suited to fabricating extremely large structural components or parts
which require high strength.

Fig. 2: Process of Hand Lay-Up Method

To be specific, in airspace industry, the glass fibre is used in low volume production
products such as wind turbine components, radomes, VOR antennas, and et cetera as
shown in the Fig. 3 below.

Fig. 3: Typical Usage of Glass Fibre in Commercial and Military Aircrafts Structures
Then, the small portion sample of the composite material must be magnified properly
and brought into focus to view the region of interest that representing the important
characteristic behaviours of material. Hence, overall behaviour or aspect of
microstructure of the glass fibre composite material could be recognized thoroughly,
through this magnifying, microscopic view of the light microscope. In addition, the
image analysis can be performed by observing the images produced on the computer that
is connected with the microscope.
3. APPARATUS & EQUIPMENTS
1) Glass fibre (200gsm)

Fig. 4: A Woven Roving Glass Fibre Fabric

2) Epoxy
3) Hardener

Fig. 5: Mixture of Epoxy Resin and Hardener for Stronger Hold

4) Scrapper(s)

Fig. 6: Different Sizes of Scrappers to Wet-out the Air Bubbles and Debris

5) Bandsaw

Fig. 7: A Vertical Bandsaw Machine to Cut the Small Portions

6) Light Microscope

Fig. 8: Microscope to Observe the Material Behaviors

7) Scissors
8) Hand Gloves
9) Face Masks
4. PROCEDURES

First and foremost, extra careful must be given to the glass fibre. The experiment only
conducted in a specified area and personal safety procedures are observed. The glass
fibre cannot be drop onto the ground as it will be contaminated with dirt and debris.
After the experiment is finished, the leftovers glass fibre is cleaned. These procedures
are listed as;
1) The woven glass fibre (200gsm) is cut into 500mm 500mm sheet and it is
prepared in six plies for the lay-up according to the assigned group.
2) The epoxy resin is prepared by mixing properly the epoxy and hardener in a
container at weight ratio 2:1.
3) The glass sheet which acts as the mould is cleaned and scraped from any debris to
provide smooth surface for laminating. Then, the glass sheet surface is waxed,
thoroughly.
4) The first glass fibre cloth is placed on top of the mould and the epoxy resin is
applied on top of the cloth.
5) The epoxy resin is applied into the fibre by using brush and rollers to wet-out and
compact the laminate.
6) Subsequent plies and resin are added to build up the overall laminate thickness.
7) A plastic sheet which the size is slightly larger than the cloth is placed on top of
the final layer. Then, a glass is placed on top of the composite.
8) A uniform weight is put on top of the composite to provide even pressure
distribution.
9) The sample is cured for at least 2 days (48 hours).
10) A small portion of the composite sample is cut at the assigned angle of 45.
11) The cut sample is placed under light microscope.
12) The light microscope is operated as in the introduction to light microscope.
13) The composite material is observed and captured at the top view and the side
view.

5. RESULTS
Given that the specifications for the glass fibre material used in this investigation
involving in the process of manufacturing the composite;

Number of layer/ply of glass fibre, n=6 pcs

The angle of cutting portion, =45
So, in order to fulfill the constituted angle for the manufactured composite, each layer of
the glass fibre material will be cut for a dimension of

500 mm 500 mm . After two

days of curing time, the resulting images obtained from the computer that is connected to
the light microscope are presented as in Fig. 9(a) to (e). In Fig. 9(a), the air bubbles were
formed as the implementation of a paddle roller, or stippling with a brush, or even scrap
out using a scrapper is not well-practiced, thoroughly. By the proper practical
procedures, the glass fibre is managed to be wet-out, so that the glass is fully
impregnated with resin and all air bubbles removed.

Fig. 9(a): Air Bubbles of the Composite

Whilst, in Fig. 9(b), debonding occurs when some adhesive stops sticking (adhering) to
an adherent or substrate material. In example, the adhesive does not have to be an
organic, polymeric material; it could be an inorganic coating, for instance. Debonding
occurs if the physical, chemical or mechanical forces that hold the bond together are
broken, perhaps by a force or environmental attack.

Fig. 9(b): Debonding of the Composite

In addition, by observing the inner fracture of the composite material in Fig. 9(c), layups tended to develop large crack-tip damage like splitting. The defected area of fracture
is maybe due to some unwanted stress distributed on it whilst performing the lay-up
process, or during the cutting of the several small portions of composite.

Fig. 9(c): Fracture of the Composite

Furthermore, the bonding at the glass fibre cloth interface plays a major role in the
mechanical behavior of a composite material. Perhaps the most important function of the
woven pattern of the cloth is to distribute the applied stress among the glass fibre
material. It is because the applied stress must be transferred across the woven fibre cloth
interface, transverse, longitudinal, and shear strength of a glass fibre composite depends
heavily on the interfacial bond strength. Thus, bonding must be maximized if the full

strength of the glass fibre is to be realized as in Fig. 9(d), making the accurate
characterization of interfacial bonding in composite materials critical.

Fig. 9(d): Interfacial Bonding of the Composite

As from the top views, the resulting images managed to be visualized and studied in the
computer screen relative to the light-emitting microscope. On the other hand, from the
side view as in Fig. 9(e), the excessive burr is remaining overall the side edge of the
glass fibre. Hence, burr is usually an unwanted piece of material which is a raised edge
or small piece of material remaining attached to a workpiece after a modification
process. Moreover, the burr also is a product of the unsolidified epoxy resin that is
accumulated at the edge of the composite which is remained from the cutting process of
the vertical bandsaw.

Fig. 9(e): Side View of the Composite

6. DISCUSSION
In this laboratory report, the results of this experiment are presented by observing all the
mechanical and material behaviors from Fig. 9(a) to (e), whereas a defect has occurred
on each part of the glass fibre except the interfacial bonding in Fig. 9(d), as it is
considered to be the perfect bonding of the materials plies and the resin coated on each
layer in forming a composite. Besides that, it is usually assumed that the glass fibre
material is statistically unavoidable to be homogenous and most of existing
imperfections are randomly distributed when produced. Fortunately, some defects
mentioned before, is a human factor outcomes, which can be minimized as possible.
Human factor here can be defined as the relation of the human physical or psychological
behaviors towards particular environment, surrounding, or in this case, hands-on
experiment. For instance, debris on top of the glass sheet mould and air bubbles from the
trapped oxygen are the results from the improper practiced of handling the scrapper;
whilst, mechanically affected behaviors of the material such as debonding and fracture
due to undesirable force or stress by human themselves during the lay-up process,
unnoticedly. Furthermore, the side or edge view image of the composite material is
distorted by the remaining burr sightings. The burr is practically due to machining
operation when cutting the small portions of the composite; whereas, unsolidified epoxy
resin still having small properties of viscosity because of inaccurate mixture of resin and
hardener compositions.
There are few challenges that have been confronted whilst doing the analysis that may
influence the resulting images presented before. Hence, some suggestions have been
constructed in this discussion as to acquire the best results in the future. Before starting
to conduct the experiment,

clean the glass sheet that act as the mould using

scrapper to avoid any contamination of debris or dusts and helps in removing the glass
fibre easily. The first problem is the 500mm 500mm span or dimension of the six
sheets woven glass fibre is not accurately same for all the plies or layers and mistakenly
identified orientation of angles. Thus, mark the span area and the orientation of the glass
fibre first to avoid mistakes of distinguishing 0, 30, and 45 orientations when laying
up the glass sheet. Plus, the mixed epoxy solidifies before laying up to the woven glass
fibre; so, prepare the epoxy resin only after the woven glass fibre is already cut, the glass
sheet has been cleaned and scrapped out, to avoid the mixed epoxy hardens before laying
up to the composite layering. This is also may make the measures of epoxy connected on

each layer may not be the same. In addition, the mixed epoxy should have the accurate
weight ratio of 2:1 between the resin and hardener compositions, thus, mix the resin and
hardener until the clear colour, with steady and slow stirring to avoid any air trapped in
the mixture which can constituted bubbles on glass fibre surface, if not, wet-out the
glass fibre cloth with the mixture evenly. Human factors or errors can be minimized by
the utilization of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE); such as, hand gloves and face
masks. The safety considerations whilst doing this vary experiment, must be taken in
highly serious manner, because the glass edge, or even the glass sheet itself can injured
anyone involved in the lab environment. To be details, the glass fibre cloth also created
fibre dust which is dangerous and can be irritated when having contact with the human
skins. Therefore, in order to reduced the risks of being injured, the glass sheet and the
glass fibre portion sample should be cleaned from any contamination of debris or dust
from the fibre cloth; whilst, avoiding any scratch on the surface.
7. CONCLUSION
Therefore, in this experiment of Composite Fabrication Using Hand Lay-Up Process
conducted in the materials and structures laboratory has achieved all objectives
successfully; whereas to understand the mechanical components and behaviors of the
glass fibre composite material. Besides that, through the hand lay-up process, the
rectangular composite sample is fabricated with certain of indicated specifications of the
physical properties of the materials.
8. QUESTIONS
1. Explain the term isotropic material and composite material. Briefly state the
differences between them.
Types of
Materials
Definition

Isotropic

Composite

Material that has the Materials made from two

identical properties in all or
directions.

more

constituent

materials with different

physical

or

chemical

properties, producing a
unique

properties

material when combined.

The physical properties The physical properties
Differences

of

isotropic

are differ depending on the

independent of direction direction of the applied

of applied force.

force.

2. In aerospace research, what are the common aircraft parts that were usually fabricated
using the lay-up method? Briefly state the purpose of the research.
The common aircraft parts that were usually fabricated using the lay-up method are
tails, wings, fuselages and propellers. As we know, lay-up method is one of the
composite fabrication processes. The lay-up is called lamina when there is a single ply
or a lay-up in which all of the layers or plies are stacked in the same orientation. On
the other hand, the lay-up is called laminate when the plies are stacked at various
angles. The laminated materials can be seen in continuous-fibre components which
the individual layers, plies or laminate are oriented in directions that will enhance the
strength in the primary load direction. Thus, the characteristics of the materials are
lightweight, strong, stiff, damage tolerance, excellent fatigue life and also corrosive
resistance.

3. Choose one composite part from any aircraft or parts in aerospace study field. State
the materials and fabrication method used for that part. Briefly explain the reasons
choosing the material and the method.
The material used is the fibre glass and it used the Resin Infusion Process which is
applied at wing section. It is also known as liquid moulding. It starts with two-parts,
matched, closed mould which is made of metal or composite material. Then, dry
reinforcement is placed into the mould before it is closed. In dispensing equipment,
resin and catalyst are metered and mixed, then pumped into the mould under low to
moderate pressure through injection parts, following predesigned paths through the
perform. In order to permeate performs quickly and evenly before cure, an extremely
low-velocity resin is applied to the thick parts. Plus, one of the advantages of Resin
Infusion Process is that the dry performs and resins costs are lower than other
material. It can also be stored at room temperature. Besides that, the process can
produce thick, near-net shape parts, eliminating most post-fabrication work.

Moreover, it also yields dimensionally accurate complex parts with good surface
detail. Therefore, a smooth finish is delivered on all exposed surface. In conclusion,
the method is chosen because it has a lot of advantages as mentioned earlier.
4. Describe the other two types of wet fabrication methods (i.e. filament winding and
pultrusion) used in aerospace industry/field.
The two types of wet fabrication methods are filament winding and pultrusion.
Filament winding is defined as a fabrication technique for manufacturing open or
closed end structure. The process involves winding filaments under tension over a
male mandrel. The mandrel rotates while a wind eye on a carriage moves horizontally,
laying down fibres in the desired pattern. The mandrel is also placed in an oven to set
the resin, once it is completely covered to the desired thickness. After the resin has
cured, the mandrel is removed, leaving the hollow final product. Whilst, the curing
process may be applied by atmospheric temperature. In aerospace industry, it is
widely used for aircraft fuselage. On the other hand, pultrusion is a continuous
process for manufacture of composite material with constant cross-section. This type
of operation is low cost and for large volume manufacturing process. The term
pultrusion is the combination of pull and extrusion where extrusion is the pushing
of material. Pultrusion can also be said as the pulling of materials, such as fibre glass
and resin, through a shaped die. The process begins with racks or creels holding rolls
of fibre mat or doffs of fibre moving. Then, this raw fibre is pulled off the racks and
guided through a resin bath or resin impregnation system. In some propulsion system,
the resin can also be injected directly into the die.
5. Prepare a short review on i. woven glass fibre composites ii. shape memory alloys
(SMA). The review should focus on fabrication processes, techniques and
applications.
i.

Woven Glass Fibre Composites

Fabrication process: Pultrusion is a manufacturing process for producing
continuous lengths of reinforced polymer structural shapes with constant
cross-sections. Raw materials are a liquid resin mixture (containing resin,
fillers and specialized additives) and flexible textile reinforcing fibres. The
process involves pulling these raw materials (rather than pushing, as is the

case in extrusion) through a heated steel forming die using a continuous

pulling device. The reinforcement materials are in continuous forms such as
rolls of glass fibre mat and doffs of glass fibre roving. As the reinforcements
are saturated with the resin mixture wet-out in the resin bath and pulled
through the die, the gelation, or hardening, of the resin is initiated by the heat
from the die and a rigid, cured profile is formed that corresponds to the shape
of the die.
Properties: An individual structural glass fibre is both stiff and strong in
tension and compression. It is actually only the long aspect ratio of the fibre
which makes it seem so. Glass fibre is weak in shear, across its axis.
Therefore, collection of fibres can be arranged permanently in a preferred
direction within a material and they can be prevented from buckling in
compression, the material will be preferentially strong in that direction. It
also improves overall stiffness and strength.
Applications: It is so versatile material due to its light weight and variety of
surface textures. During World War II, glass fibre was developed for the
moulded plywood used in aircraft radomes. Radomes are used to prevent ice
and freezing rain from accumulating directly onto the metal surface of
antennas.

ii.

Shape Memory Alloys (SMA)

Fabrication process: SMA are typically made by casting, using vacuum arc
melting or induction melting. These are specialist techniques used to keep
impurities in the alloy to a minimum and ensure the metals are well mixed.
The ingot is then hot rolled into longer sections and then drawn to turn it into
wire. They are heated to between 400C and 500C for 30 minutes, shaped
hot and then cooled rapidly by quenching in water or by cooling with air.
Properties: The yield strength of SMA is lower than that of conventional
steel, but some compositions have a higher yield strength than plastic or
aluminium. It also has super elastic properties or the shape-memory effect
can be exploited. Other than that, it also has high level of recoverable strain
these materials can hold without permanent damage.

Applications: Used by BOEING, Texas A&M University and NASA, for the
development of quitter and more efficient jet engines in the future. It can
dissipate energy and dampen vibrations as well as reducing the high vibration
loads on payloads during launch allowing for more lightweight and efficient
designs.
6. The effect of varying fibre layers (thickness) and angle orientations on the fabrication
process and expected result of mechanical properties of its composite.
The effect of varying fibre layers and angle orientations on the fabrication process is
to allow the stress-strain test to be conducted to observe the orientation of the ultimate
tensile strength of the composite respect to different applied forces. This composite
actually giving good results on the test failures of the properties thus can be applied
on fabricating the wings of the aircraft as it is very flexible and robust material.
7. All descriptions of the composite images obtained from the light microscope is
discussed in the Section 5. Results and Section 6. Discussion previously.

9. REFERENCES
1

Stinchcomb, W. W., & Ashbaugh, N. E. (Eds.). (1993). Evaluating surface treatment

effects on interfacial bond strength using dynamic mechanical analysis. Philadelphia:

American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM).

Erdogan, F. (1972). Engineering Fracture Mechanics. Oxford: Pergamon Press.

Volume 4: Fracture Problems in Composite Materials, pg 811 840.

Norkhairunnisa Mazlan. (2015, December 19). Composite. Class lecture for EAS
3401: Aerospace Materials and Processes, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra

Malaysia (UPM), Serdang, SGR.

AWWA Staff. (2005). Fiberglass Pipe Design: AWWA Manual M45 Second Edition.

Denver, CO: American Water Works Association.

Mallick, P. K. (2008). Fiber Reinforced Composites: Materials, Manufacturing, and

Design Third Edition. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press (Taylor & Francis Group).
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Fibrous Composite Materials. Virginia: Poe, C. C., Jr.