Numerical Deflection Analysis of Rectangular Laminated Composite Plates - Truck Bed - Case Study

Transport industry plays a vital role in development of economy of countries. To increase the load carrying capacity of the truck, the weight of truck bed may be reduced using fibre reinforced composite material. In this work, a numerical investigation is performed to reduce the weight of the truck bed using different types of laminated composites. An extensive study is conducted using unidirectional and woven fibres of glass, carbon and Kevlar fibres with polyester, epoxy and vinyl ester resins. Carbon fibre laminated plates have higher stiffness than Glass and Kevlar composite plates. Asymmetrically hybrid composite plates have lower stiffness than symmetrically hybrid composite plates. It is observed that the stiffness of plate is increased when kevlar unidirectional fibres are arranged at top and bottom of the laminate. [K/Gw]S hybrid composite plates has the lowest deflection than other five hybrid composite plates. An optimization study is performed to identify the influencing parameter for deflection of the composite materials among material type, fibre volumetric fraction and the thickness of plate using Taguchi method. The results revealed that thickness of the plate has more influential than other two parameters.