Investigation on thermal buckling analysis of jute/epoxy polymer matrix composites

Abstract

Natural fibers are known for their biodegradable and abundant availability, which makes them a potential replacement for synthetic fibers. An attempt is made in this work to study the thermal buckling behavior of a jute-fiber-reinforced epoxy polymer matrix composite plate. A numerical model is developed to study the thermal buckling behavior of the composite using the commercial finite-element analysis software Ansys. The result obtained from the numerical model is validated using experimental analysis and with the theoretical values published in the literature. The developed numerical model is suited very well for isotropic and composite materials. The influence of the number of plies, orientation and boundary conditions on the thermal buckling behavior of the composite is also studied using parametric analysis. The effects of boundary conditions such as ‘clamped’ and ‘simply supported’ on cross-ply symmetric, antisymmetric, balanced and quasi-isotropic laminates are investigated.