The Study of Sandpapering Effect on Mechanical Properties of Aircraft Materials (Aluminum Alloy and Carbon Fiber Reinforce Plastic)

Since the dawn of aviation, successful aircraft design has depended on using the strongest, lightest materials available. In the endless quest for such materials, however, only two kinds have made the grade: aluminum alloys and composites. The objective of this project is to analyze the effect of sand papering towards mechanical strength of carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) and aluminum alloy in terms of hardness and tensile strength. Surface wear of materials might produce flaws that set as crack initiators. A correlation between the flaw depth as well as flaw density with mechanical strength should be studied. Each test on the specimen will follow a standard from American Society of Testing and Material (ASTM D3039/D 3039-00 El) for CFRP and ASTM B557-06 for Aluminum Alloy. The Universal Testing Machine (UTM) has been used to test each specimen for its tensile strength. Meanwhile Optical Microscope has been used to monitor the surface textural changes on each specimen after the rubbing and tests. After the experiments, we can see changes of the morphology of the specimens. It conclude that the bigger grit size of sandpaper, the less mechanical properties (tensile and hardness) will be.