A Study of the Effect of Fiber Content and Fiber Orientation on the Tensile Strength of Glass Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Composite for Pipe Production: A Statistical Approach

This study was aimed at optimizing the development parameters of a glass fiber reinforced epoxy composite for pipeline application. In this study, the Taguchi experimental design technique was applied to determine the best combination of process parameters (fiber content and orientation) for optimum tensile strength. The optimum tensile strength of 209.65MPa was reported at the fiber content of 50% and Fiber orientation of 45º. Analysis of variance also showed that in optimizing for high tensile strength, the glass fiber content and the fiber orientation are significant factors. The material at optimum tensile properties was applied in the simulation of the behavior of a high-pressured gas pipeline and results proved the reliability of the material in such application.