ORCID Identifier(s)

0000-0001-7909-2419

Graduation Semester and Year

2017

Language

English

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering

Department

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

First Advisor

Andrey Beyle

Second Advisor

Andrey Beyle

Abstract

Most of the cross arms in the country are made from wood. Wood, although easily accessible, has its own defects. Environmental effects which includes the expansion and contraction of wood over the years which will disrupt its structural integrity, the presence of termites and other insects which dig into wood and destroy it from the inside, Materials wastage when it comes to improving the structural strength by increasing the cross-sectional thickness and height The replacement of wood with composites seems like a logical idea and also a solution to most of the problems. The applications of composites in our day to day life has increased exponentially over the past decade. They have proven to be a great substitute to other materials in terms of longevity, structural integrity, and manufacturing. The current study deals with a comparative analysis of hybrid composites as substitutes to wood in cross arms on a utility poles. The present study is done by applying Finite Element Analysis to both wooden and hybrid composites cross arms by considering real-time geometry of the object. Results from Static structural analysis of the wood such as Spotted gum, southern pine, and western red cedar have been considered from an existing paper. A very detailed analysis of the hybrid cross arms section has been done in ANSYS Workbench V17 software. The models were created using CATIA V5 software. A set of characteristics like Mass per unit length, stresses, Factor of safety and deformation were used to compare the cross arms using the simulated results. The position different composites in hybrid combination of the fibers have been done in different fashions. The composites used here were E-glass, Carbon fiber, S-Glass. The result was then used to determine an optimized design for the study.

Keywords

Static structural analysis, Finite element analysis, Hybrid composites, Electric utility pole

Disciplines

Aerospace Engineering | Engineering | Mechanical Engineering

Comments

Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington

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