International Journal of Applied Engineering Research ISSN 0973-4562 Volume 14, Number 1 (2019) pp. 69-78 © Research India Publications. https://dx.doi.org/10.37622/IJAER/14.1.2019.69-78 69 Mechanical Characterization of GPL/Polymer Nanocomposite Structure using Finite Element Analysis and SCILAB Dilip Kumar Bagal 1* , Mousumee Ray 2 , Sandeep Bhoi 3 1,* Department of Mechanical Engineering, Government College of Engineering, Kalahandi, Bhawanipatna, Odisha, 766002, India. 2, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Centre for Advanced Post Graduate Studies, BPUT, Rourkela, Odisha, 769015, India. 3 Assistant Professor, Dept. of Mechanical Engg., Parala Maharaja Engineering College (P.M.E.C), Berhampur, Odisha, 761003, India. Abstract Recent advances show that the Graphene platelets have dominated carbon nanotubes in the field of structural applications. This study is based on finding the mechanical properties and stress analysis of Graphene platelets. Here, the change in mechanical properties of epoxy nanocomposite with Graphene platelets at nano-fillers volume fraction of 0-0.112 was found. The mechanical properties measured were elastic modulus, shear modulus and bulk modulus by using SCILAB. The result shows that elastic modulus was increased ~40 %, shear modulus and bulk modulus of the composite was increased ~34 %. The properties so obtained were analyzed by using ANSYS 15.0. A cylindrical shell panel was designed for the purpose of this analysis. Mechanical properties at different volume fractions were studied for two different loading conditions. The results obtained from this analysis indicate that the stress value remains constant for both loading conditions and the deformation value decreases very rapidly. Keywords: Graphene Platelets, Nanocomposite, ANSYS, SCILAB 1 INTRODUCTION The transition of nano particles from micro particles changes drastically the physical properties. Since nanoscale materials have large surface area per unit volume, its properties vary substantially from that of the larger dimensional material’s properties of same composition. The surface area per unit volume is inversely proportional to the material’s/fiber diameter. Thus in case of particle or fiber smaller the diameter, greater the surface area per unit volume. For the fiber and layered material, the surface area/volume is dominated, especially for nonmaterial. Therefore, a change in particle diameter, layer thickness, or fibrous material diameter from the micrometer to nanometer range, will affect the surface area-to-volume ratio by three orders of magnitude [1]. Though a large study shows the fabrication of Graphene Platelets (GPL) in polymer matrix and manufacturing of GPL in different ways but studies have uncovered the static analysis of such composites. In the present study a very small volume fraction of Graphene fillers is considered, of about a range of 0-0.112 vol. % in an epoxy matrix and the composite is fabricated. After the fabrication the different mechanical properties of the composite was found for different volume fraction of Graphene platelets by using Halpin-Tsai Equation. As a first step graphs were plotted by varying the volume fraction of Graphene against the various mechanical properties by using SCILAB to get different mechanical properties. In the second step a shell panel is designed using ANSYS, having two conditions i.e. panel being fixed at one end and carries load at the other end and panel being fixed at both the ends and carrying uniformly distributed load all over it. In the last step static analysis of the shell panel is done for the above stated two conditions at different mechanical properties. 2 METHODOLOGY Here, very small volume of Graphene platelets as filler material is used for study. Such GPLs in the epoxy polymer matrix provides a very large surface area per unit volume. The surface area per unit volume is inversely proportional to the material’s/fiber diameter. Thus i n case of particle or fiber smaller the diameter, greater the surface area per unit volume. Hence a low percentage of Graphene not only shows superior mechanical and thermal qualities than carbon nanotubes but also have capability to construct a variety of carbon based nano structures. Polymer based composites having Graphene as filler material has wide application in aerospace components, automobile industry, sporting goods. Moreover, with the use of low Graphene content the properties exhibited by it are not hampered. Table 1: Material properties of epoxy Thermal stability 315°C at 5% wt loss Thermal conductivity 0.3 W/mK Glass Transition Temperature 210°c Young’s modulus 2.0 GPa Tensile strength 60 MPa Table 2: Material properties of GPL used Length (L) 2.5μm Width (w) 1.5μm Thickness (t) 1.5nm Inter layer spacing (t ˊ ) 0.34nm Young’s modulus (EGPL) 2.5GPa Density (ρ) 1.06 g/cm 3