COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE USE OF FIBRE COMPOSITE MATERIALS WITHIN BUILDING, MARINE AND AUTOMOTIVE SECTORS

In the fulfilment of the requirements of

Masters of Engineering Sciences

November 2014

Abstract

This study addresses the advantages of fibre composite materials usage among various sectors. While advanced engineered materials like engineered designed fibre composites promise respectable favourable circumstances in regions like effectiveness and efficiency, safety and security and also sustainability in structural outline, development and construction, they are not always immediately embraced by the small and medium (SME) building and construction sector. Past studies have shown that natural fibre composites can be developed into a load-bearing structural member for applications in structural and infrastructure. Using as an establishment prior research into innovation in small building construction and development firms, discussion is made on the use of fibre composite materials in different engineering sectors. This aims at the investigation of the comparison of usage among three sectors namely Building, Automotive and Marine for Fibre composite materials (FCM).Matters intend to incorporate a dialog of materials related innovations adopted or built-up by small builders interviewed for this research, their use for advanced materials and processes and also the processes they used for building up innovations.Moreover factors enforcing the industrialists as well as the engineers to implement the usage of FCM are also demonstrated extensively.The report concludes with a discussion on analyzing the adoption of various engineered fibre composite materials in industries.

Key Words: Fibre reinforced polymer composites, Construction, Marine, and Automotive

TABLE OF CONTENTS1.INTRODUCTION122.LITERATURE REVIEW152.1.Reviews about Composites152.2.What Is a Composite?152.2.1.Foundation on Composites:162.2.2.Illustration of Composites:172.3.Advantages of Composites:222.3.1.Lightweight232.3.2.High Backbone232.3.3.Corrosion and Chemical Resistance232.3.4.Adjustable242.3.5.Non-Conductive242.4.Why use Composites?252.4.1.Composition of Composite in a position Composites:282.5.Composition of the Composite Fibre in Composite Materials282.5.1.Fibres of Composite in a position Composites:282.5.2.Thermoplastic vs. thermosetting Resins:292.6.Types of Fibre Composite Materials302.6.1.Objectives:322.6.2.Benefits of Fibre Composite Materials:322.6.3.Limitations of Fibre Composite materials:332.7.FIBRE COMPOSITE MATERIALS IN CONSTRUCTION:352.7.1.Process of Pultrusion:352.7.2.Fibre Composite Bridges:392.7.3.Australias first fibre composite bridge:402.7.4.Road Bridges:412.7.5.Pedestrian bridges and walkways:422.7.6.Rehabilitation and strengthening of existing structures:442.7.7.Rehabilitation and Strengthening of Concrete Structures:452.7.8.Fibre composite railway sleepers:462.7.9.Omni directional :472.7.10.Unidirectional:472.7.11.Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymers (CFRP):482.7.12.Types of Carbon amalgamated Fibre Possess prime strength to Weight Adjustment:492.7.13.Thermal conduction522.7.14.Applications in Civilian engineering:532.7.15.Sandwich Construction:542.7.16.Civil Engineering:572.8.General Applications Of Carbon Fibre Composites In Various Fields:572.8.1.In Automotive Industries:572.8.2.Marine engineering582.8.3.Sporting merchandise:582.8.4.Medical Applications:592.8.5.Automobile trade:602.9.Disadvantages:622.10.ROLE OF FIBRE COMPOSITE MATERIALS IN AUTOMOTIVE SECTOR:632.10.1.Advantages:702.10.2.Disadvantages:702.10.3.Usage In Automotive Industries And Automobile Components :742.11.ROLE OF FIBRE COMPOSITE MATERIALS IN MARINE SECTOR:852.11.1.Advantages and Disadvantages of thermoplastic Composites:902.11.2.Carbon Composite Fibres:1012.12.SimilaritiesOf Fibre Composite Materials Used Between Marine And Automotive Industries1012.12.1.Types of Carbon amalgamated Fibre Possess prime strength to Weight Adjustment1012.12.2.Properties, Advantages and Disadvantages of the Fibre composite materials in Marine Engineering sector:1043.METHODOLOGY1083.1.Hypothesis:1083.2.Research design:1083.3.Research Methods1093.4.Quantitative Research:1114.DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS1124.1.Data Sampling of Respondents of the Study:1124.2.Data Collection:1134.3.Data Analysis:1134.3.1.Building Sector113Descriptive Statistics1144.3.2.Employee turnover1154.3.3.Descriptive Statistics1164.3.4.Reasons of use of fibre composite materials in organisations: 1174.3.5.Type of Fibre composite material chiefly used in the organisation1184.3.6.Factors influence the use of Fibre composite materials in the organisations:1194.4.Automotive sector1204.4.1.Descriptive Statistics:1204.4.2.Annual Turnover:1214.4.3.Descriptive Statistics:1224.4.4.Employee Turnover:1234.4.5.Reasons for the use of fibre composite materials in the organisation1244.4.6.Factors influencing the preference over the fibre composite materials used by the organisations1254.5.Marine Sectors1264.5.1.Descriptive Statistics:1264.5.2.Annual Turnover:1274.5.3.Employee Turnover:1284.5.4.Reasons for the usage of fibre composite materials in the organisation:1284.5.5.Preference over the fibre composite materials in the organisation1294.5.6.Factors influencing the usage of specific fibre composite materials used in the organisation1304.5.7.Descriptive Statistics1314.5.8.Correlations1314.5.9.Correlations Analysis1324.5.10.T - Test1334.5.11.`Correlation Analysis1344.5.12.Correlations:1344.5.13.Description:1354.5.14.ANOVA:1374.6.Regression Analysis1384.6.1.Correlations1384.6.2.Residuals Statistics :1394.6.3.Model Summary1394.6.4.ANOVA1404.6.5.Dependent Variable: VAR000041404.6.6.Descriptive Statistics1414.6.7.Correlations1415.DISCUSSION AND FINDINGS1436.CONCLUSION1457.REFERENCES146

List of Figures

Figure 1.Fibre Composite Material (Source - www.acpsales.com)13

Figure 2. Cross sectional view of composite laminate (Source - Mohan 2008)15

Figure 3. Aramid Composites (Source - www.acpsales.com)16

Figure 4. FCM in Marine (Source - Mohan 2008)18

Figure 5. Boron Composites (Source - www.alsic.com)20

Figure 6. Wood composite materials ( Mohan 2008)23

Figure 7. Flax composite fibres (Source - Mohan 2008)26

Figure 8. Thermosetting and Thermoplastic (Source- Hillman & Dave 2003)28

Figure 9. Innovative applications of fibre composite bridges in Australia (Source- Main Roads Fibre Composite Projects, 2005).39

Figure 10. Road composite bridges (Source-Main Roads Fibre Composite Projects, 2005.)41

Figure 11. Fibre composite pedestrian bridges and boardwalks (Source- Main Roads Fibre Composite Projects, Technical brief. September 2005).......................................42

Figure 12. Fibre composite girder replacing timber bridge girders.(Source- Main Roads Fibre Composite Projects, Technical brief. September 2005)43

Figure 13. Repair and strengthening projects using fibre composites.44

Figure 14. Innovative fibre composite railway sleepers. (Source - Stenius 2000)45

Figure 15. Carbon Fibres (Toledo et al 2003)49

Figure 16. Visor in 2-wheeler..67 Figure 17. Cover 1-side of 2-wheeler67

Figure 18. Indicator cover..68 Figure 19. Billian seat cover in 2-wheeler68

Figure 201. (a) Rear view mirror front side, (b) Rear view mirror back side68

Figure 21. Polyester resins, (Source - Velpari et al 2012)91

Figure 22. Glass fibre (Source - Mohan 2008)97

Figure 23. Woven FCM (Source - Velpari et al 2012)99

Figure 24. Unidirectional FCM (Source - Velpari et al 2012)99

List of Graphs

Graph 1. Mean age of the companies113

Graph 2. Annual Turnover of the companies 114

Graph 3. Number of employees115

Graph 4. The usage of the fibre composite materials117

Graph 5. Various type of Fibre composite materials used respectively118

Graph 6Factors influencing the use of FCM 119

Graph 7. Mean age of the automobile companie120

Graph 8.Annual Turnover in the Automobile sector121

Graph 9. The employee rate123

Graph 10 . Selection of Fibre Composite materials based on its use124

Graph 11. Factors influencing the preference of FCM over other sectors.125

Graph 12. Mean age of different marine sectors126

Graph 13. Annual Turnover of the different Marine groups127

Graph 14. The Employee rate128

Graph 15. Reasons for the use of FCM128

Graph 16. Preference of FCM respectively129

Graph 17. Factors influencing the preference of FCM over other sectors130

List of Tables

Table 1. Thermal conduction of Carbon Fibre (Source-Thorp et al 1998)52

Table 2. Application of natural fibres in automotive parts [Source - Harriette L. Bos ,"The potential of flax fibres as reinforcement for composite materials" Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, Eindhoven 2004].66

Table 3. Statistics showing the variations114

Table 4. Statistics showing the different variants116

Table 5. Statistics showing the variations121

Table 6. Statistics showing the variations122

Table 7. Mean and Standard deviation131

Table 8. Significance of the correlation .............131

Table 9. Correlation analysis132

Table 10. T- test for mean and standard deviation with the sample obtaining the error of both the sectors.133

Table 11. Statistical data depicting usage of the Fibre Composite Materials between the sectors 133

Table 12. Using Pearson correlation analysis134

Table 13. Depicting the p-value, showing the usage of FCM in building135

Table 14. A detailed statistical view with all th