The bearing strength of pin loaded woven composites manufactured by vacuum assisted resin transfer moulding and hand lay-up techniques

The bearing strength of pin loaded woven glass-fiber reinforced epoxy composites was investigated. To understand the effect of manufacturing methods on bearing strength of pin loaded composites, specimens manufactured using Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Moulding (VARTM) and Hand Lay-up methods were tested under tensile loading. In addition, the effect of geometrical parameters such as diameter of pin-hole (d), edge distance to pin hole diameter ratio (e/d) and, width to pin-hole diameter ratio (w/d) on the bearing strength of pin loaded composites were studied. It was observed that specimens manufactured using VARTM method sustained more load compared to the specimens manufactured using Hand Lay-up method. Geometrical parameters found to be very effective on failure modes, bearing strength and magnitude of sustained load.