Virtual fatigue analysis of epoxy based composite reinforced with sugarcane fibre, fly ash and carbon nano tubes

Composites are widely used as a lightweight material in automotive, aerospace, transportation, wind turbines and leisure industries. Since the current research trend focuses on making eco‐friendly composites, objective is shifted towards manufacture of better composite materials with available/excess resources to contribute towards a more sustainable environment. This paper highlights fatigue life predictions and interaction among sugarcane, fly‐ash and carbon nano tubes. Instead of reinforcing synthetic materials in the polymer composite, an attempt is made in this work to reinforce biodegradable, recyclable, reusable materials in the polymer composite. Materials like sugarcane, carbon nano tubes and fly‐ash are chosen due to this corresponding nature. The influences of wt.% of sugarcane, carbon nano tubes, fly‐ash on fatigue behaviour of composite are determined. Fatigue analysis of materials prepared using different wt.% is carried out using ANSYS. Response surface methodology and design of experiments approach were implemented to decide on number of ANSYS simulations. Analysis of variance is used to find the influences of different parameters such as wt.% of sugarcane, carbon nano tubes, fly‐ash on fatigue behaviour of composites and obtained their optimized levels. Regression equation was found to determine the number of cycles to failure of the composite. This paper highlights fatigue life predictions and interaction among sugarcane, fly‐ash and carbon nano tubes. Instead of reinforcing synthetic materials in the polymer composite, an attempt is made in this work to reinforce biodegradable/recyclable/reusable materials in the polymer composite. Materials like sugarcane, carbon nano tubes and fly‐ash are chosen due to this corresponding nature.