Diseño y simulación de un material compuesto con fibra de Abacá y su aplicación en el sector Automotriz

Abstract

This research aims to characterize a composite material with Abacá fiber and its use in the automotive industry, motivating sustainable development in Ecuador. For this, three batches of test tubes standardized by the ASTM 3029 standard for composite materials have been manufactured: batches one and three correspond to unidirectional fibers with four and six layers, while batch two corresponds to an arrangement of random fibers. The next step consists of the execution of tensile tests using the Shimatzu 300KN machine, to obtain mechanical properties of the composite material that are incorporated into the software library to design the material that will serve as the basis for developing a simulation of the test piece. Finally, a specific analysis of the behavior of the unidirectional specimen and the elasticity modulus was made and presents large dispersions, typical of the fiber-epoxy behavior. The results obtained show that the configuration with the highest tensile stress is the one corresponding to unidirectional fibers with six layers, reaching a magnitude of 149 MPa and that, in the case of random fibers, the elastic zone presents a non-linear behavior that required calculating the elastic modulus with the secant method. In addition, it will be concluded that it is possible to implement a simulation of the selected part with the composite material, where it will be concluded that the deformation obtained with the best configuration of the Abaca fiber is less than that defined with the original material of the steering wheel cover.