Fiberglass Skin Stiffness Test

A test to see how much the stiffness of an airfoil increases if covered in fiberglass. A 0.8 oz fiberglass cloth and epoxy resin were used to coat an airfoil that was cut out of styrofoam. The foam by itself had a stiffness of 0.6 lbs/in, after one day of cure time the stiffness was measured to be 3.5 lbs/in. After three days, the stiffness increased to 13.8 lbs/in for a stiffness greater than 20 times that of the foam by itself.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• foam
• fiberglass
• skin
• deflection
• stiffness
• airfoil

[DrThunder88]

I like the empirical approach!

It would have been hard to believe fiberglass fabric that fine adds that much stiffness, but the results are impressive. Nice work.

[Caleb6543]

@DrThunder88 I was surprised too. It isn't too hard to break it (relatively speaking) but the stiffness was more than adequate.

[mlbdrumsyahoo]

This is interesting, what did you use to adhere the mesh to the foam with?

[Caleb6543]

@mlbdrumsyahoo I just brushed epoxy resin over the glass cloth. The resin also adhered to the foam.

[reesj02]

Good experiment thank you for the help with fibreglass stiffness :)

[FrankaDith]

Very telling experiment