29 Advanced Engineering and Applied Sciences: An International Journal 2014; 4(3): 29-33 ISSN 2320–3927 Original Article Analysis and characterization of Tensile and Compressive Properties of the Chopped Strand Mat E-Glass Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Composites Sudhir S Mathapati 1 , M.Tech scholar, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Gogte Institute of Technology, Belgaum. TusharT. Hawal 2 , Faculty, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Gogte Institute of Technology, Belgaum. PrashantP. Kakamari 3 , Faculty, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Gogte Institute of Technology, Belgaum. Nikhil R. 4 , Faculty, Department of Industrial and Production Engineering, Gogte Institute of Technology, Belgaum. Corresponding Author Email: sudhirmathapati@gmail.com Received 02 July 2014; accepted 14 July 2014 Abstract The greatest advantage of composite materials is strength and stiffness together with light weight. By choosing an appropriate combination of matrix material and reinforcement, manufacturers can produce a property that exactly matches the requirements for a particular structure for a particular purpose. The present works aims to prepare E-glass fiber reinforced composite with variation in volume fraction of glass fiber content like 1%, 2% and 3% with Bisphenol A as matrix material. Tensile and compression tests are conducted on the prepared composite. As a final point of view, the experimental results are compared with the FEA results by using analysis software like ANSYS. © 2014 Universal Research Publications. All rights reserved Key words: Epoxy, E-glass fiber, Composite, FEA, ANSYS, Tensile test, Compression test. 1. Introduction Composite materials are an important class of materials which are now available to mankind in large quantity. In recent years, many glass fiber-reinforced composite materials are widely used in the aerospace and automotive industries. Composite materials are important for mechanical, chemical and civil engineers, material scientists for using them on a large amount of engineering and other applications [1]. The technological development has increased on advances in the materials field.A composite material is one, which consists of at least two materials working together to produce new material with properties that are dissimilar to the properties of individual material that they possess. It contains the most important characteristic that the materials are not soluble to each other [2]. Most composites are made up by using more than one material [4]. Most of the commonly used composite materials have a large phase, which is continuous, called as the matrix, and one distributed, on- continuous phase called as the reinforcement, which is typically stronger and harder [5].Reinforcements are added primarily to improve the stiffness and strength of the matrix and are usually available in the fiber form [7]. 2. Materials and processing methods 2.1 Selection of matrix material Bisphenol A, more commonly known as BPA, is a chemical widely used to make polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins.BPA is hardly the only chemical to be identified as an "endocrine disrupter”. More than 50 such compounds have been identified. Some cosmetics and soft plastic toys contain one or more phthalates a group of chemicals that interfere with testosterone and have been shown to lead to infertility and cancer. 2.2 Selection of reinforcement material The Literature survey indicates that very limited work has been done on the E-glass fiber reinforced epoxy composite. E-glass fibers were purchased from Binani Goa glass fiber company, Mumbai. Glass fibers are readily produced from raw materials, which are now available in unlimited supply. Binani Chopped Strand Mat is made of randomly, yet evenly distributed strands, chopped from continuous E- glass fibers into 50 mm length, bonded with “emulsion binder” contains better surface bonding efficiency. 2.3 Methods of preparing the composite material The raw materials used in this work are, 1) Matrix material 2) E glass fiber (chopped strand mat) 3) Hardener The fabrication of the composites is carried out by the hand lay-up technique. Composites of three different volume fraction variations such as1%, 2% and 3% of glass fiber are made. The matrix material was weighed to the required quantity and catalyst, accelerator, hardener and glass fiber were added to the matrix material. Proper mixing was done using a mechanical stirrer. The glass fibers are randomly oriented in the matrix. The mixture was then allowed to settle for some time to reduce the air bubbles. A releasing agent was sprayed on the surface of the aluminum mould Available online at http://www.urpjournals.com Advanced Engineering and Applied Sciences: An International Journal Universal Research Publications. All rights reserved