Undergraduate Projects

Modal and Harmonic Analysis of Alloy and Composite Axial Gas Turbine Blades:

Composites are being widely considered as a replacement for metals and alloys in current day aerospace engines. Researchers have given primary focus in studying the various stresses induced in such components throughout the application of composites. Modal and harmonic analysis, which are used to analyze the dynamic properties of mechanical structures, have not been given research importance like stress analysis. Modal and harmonic analysis help in analyzing the resonant frequency and the amplitude of vibration. This is necessary because at the resonant frequency the vibration is more prominent than the excitation and hence this results in higher fatigue than normal conditions. This will eventually lead to premature failure much before the original lifetime. In this work, modal and harmonic analysis are performed on alloy and composite turbine blades using finite element technique and their vibration stability for different excitation frequencies are relatively studied.

Static analysis & study of effect of fiber orientation on properties of GFRP composites:

Due to orthotropic behavior of composite materials it is necessary to perform destructive tests to determine their mechanical properties. Destructive testing of composites is a tedious process. It requires equipment, monetary and other resources. Also the mechanical properties of composites vary with fiber orientation and ply angle combination. Hence, in order to determine the mechanical properties of composites of different fiber orientations multiple destructive tests have to be performed for each and every fiber orientation. If a generalized equation is developed to relate the mechanical properties with the fiber orientation, destructive testing is not necessary. This project aims at developing a regression equation that relates the fiber orientation with the shear stress of the material.