Abstract:
The objective of this thesis is to investigate the free vibrational behaviors of bamboo/glass fiber reinforced epoxy hybrid composites with and without edge cracks by using analytical, simulation and experimental methods. The analytical and simulation methods were performed to obtain the first three natural frequencies based on First-Order Shear Deformation Theory (FSDT) and ABAQUS respectively. BGHC materials with an angle of orientation [00 900 00 00 900 00] and lamina arrangement [bamboo-glass-bamboo-glass bamboo-glass] were fabricated using a vacuum bag moulding assisted hand layup method. The experimental testing was performed to determine the first three natural frequencies and damping ratios of cracked and uncracked BGHC materials using ACC103 accelerometer with DAQ USB NI-6009 were connected to the computer by integrated the LABVIEW. The first three damping ratios were measured according to the half-bandwidth method from the frequency response function graph plotted. By comparing the natural frequencies of BGHC-1, BGHC-2, and BGHC-3 materials, it has seen that BGHC-3 recorded the highest natural frequency while BGHC-2 recorded the lowest natural frequency. The obtained test results from the experimental method were validated with the analytical and simulation results. A good agreement was accomplished between the analytical, simulation and experimental results. The analytical, simulation and experimental results have shown that the first three natural frequencies and damping ratios were decreased with an increase of crack depth. And also, the natural frequencies were decreased and damping ratios were increased with an increase of bamboo fiber in BGHC-1, BGHC-2, and BGHC-3 materials. The experimental result confirms that the damping ratio for BGHC-2 was equal to 0.23974 at room temperature. This is definitely greater than for most other conventional materials like cast iron, steel, and aluminum. Thus, BGHC-2 made from 30% bamboo and 10% glass fiber could be a viable candidate for applications that need good vibration properties.