Synthesis and Characterization of Eglass Based Composite Materials for Applications in Automobile Industry

Abstract

The present work demonstrates vehicular light weighting by the utilization of GFRPs as an exemplary elucidation to the critical situation of fossil fuels depletion, air pollution and global warming due automobiles. The current work demonstrates the feasibility of producing innovative lighter materials such as, E - glass based composites as alternative materials for increasing the safety, movability and performance of the automobiles. Five different GFRPs are synthesis in the present work with and without filler by hand layup technique. The various fillers utilized includes ZnO, SiO, carbon black and a hybrid filler constituting all the three fillers. Further, liquid resistance analysis test and corrosion test are also performed on the GFRPs. The GFRP with ZnO filler manifests impressive properties among all the GFRPs after investigations. Thus, it has a significant prospective to serve as an alternative material for automotive vehicles. Also, a FEM analysis using ANSYS 14 is performed for the base frame of the front car seat considering GFRP with ZnO filler as the prime material. Various comparative analyses performed for strength, cost and deformation reveals that the maximum stress and cost for GFRP is 1.95 and 15.25 times higher than alloy steel with exceptional properties for deformation. Further, an exploration has been performed with the utilization of GFRP in a medium sized vehicle for the entire vehicle fleet system of Delhi It is demonstrated by the investigation that the total substitution of alloy steel, aluminium and cast iron by GFRP can lead to average total weight reduction by about 56%, 9% and 6% in a medium sized vehicle and appreciable energy conservation. Thus, GFRPs can be interpreted as impeccable materials considering their competence for strength, light weight and economics for mobility, emission reduction and fuel conservation in automobiles. newline