New Orleans, Louisiana
June 26, 2016
June 26, 2016
June 29, 2016
978-0-692-68565-5
2153-5965
Materials
9
10.18260/p.25841
https://peer.asee.org/25841
971
Dr. Chawla is an Assistant Professor in Plastics and Composites Engineering, Engineering & Design Department at Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA. His research is in the field of manufacturing and repair of fiber reinforced polymer composites.
The ABET-ETAC Engineering Technology programs at our university have recently transitioned to ABET-EAC Engineering programs. Thus, many changes have been introduced to the already existing courses. This paper details one such introduction of project work involving hands-on manufacturing lab activities in an undergraduate course, Advanced Composites. The Advanced Composites course focuses mainly on teaching advanced methods of manufacturing as well as mechanics of fiber reinforced polymer composites. The objective of the project discussed in this report is to design simple composite laminates of certain strength so that they are able to sustain specific tensile and flexural loads. The loads are to be chosen based on the capacity of the load cells on the testing machines present in the Engineering Department. The design is then verified by manufacturing the laminates and comparing the targeted tensile and flexural strengths to those obtained through mechanical testing. The fiber reinforced polymer composite laminates for testing are manufactured by curing pre-preg plies at elevated temperature by using one or more of the following: autoclave, compression molder, ovens, and heated mold. Undergraduate students work in two or three member teams to optimize and create the beams, test them, and write up a final report detailing the activities involved. Optimization is carried out using hand calculations, computational methods and finite element analysis through CATIA Composites Workbench. Along with the analysis and discussion of results, students are required to discuss and compare the optimization techniques that they used, in the lab report. This project may be used to evaluate student outcome (k) of ABET General Criterion 3.
Chawla, T. S. (2016, June), Optimization of Design of a Simple Composite Laminate: Project for Advanced Composites Undergraduate Course Paper presented at 2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, New Orleans, Louisiana. 10.18260/p.25841
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